JEREMY CORBYN will  host a refugee-led event on Saturday that seeks to build solidarity across borders and fight increasing hostility towards displaced people. 

Organised by the Peace and Justice Project, a global initiative founded by the former Labour leader, the event will hear from people trapped for years in refugee camps in countries including Palestine, Somalia and West Papua. 

The online conference will also address Britain’s “hostile environment” policies and government plans to overhaul the asylum system that would see refugees penalised for entering the country via an “illegal” route. 

It will also touch on the criminalisation of rescue workers in Italy and the worsening experiences of people trapped for years and even generations in refugee camps.

Ahead of the event, Mr Corbyn warned that refugees and migrants have been scapegoated, while poverty and inequality have soared. 

“Instead of allowing the few to divide us, we need to build solidarity across borders and across communities to stand up for dignity, human rights and big changes to systems that hurt us all,” he said. “Refugees are not passive victims, but people whose ideas and experiences should shape a more just and decent world.”

Ways activists in Britain can demonstrate practical solidarity will be discussed, as well as the causes and consequences of refugee crises. 

The event is being backed by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the global union for transport workers, which supports seafarers such as those aboard the Iuventa 10, who have been arrested for rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean. 

Assistant general secretary Rob Johnston, who will be addressing Saturday’s event, said: “Transport workers globally are often on the coalface of the refugee crisis and the hostile environment towards migrants, whether it’s responding to distress calls at sea, enforcing abusive migration policies or delivering urgent aid for those in need. We see the crisis on a daily basis.

“With the devastation that the Covid-19 pandemic is having, particularly in the global south, as well as conflicts that are forcing tens of thousands to flee for their lives, the Peace and Justice Project’s fightback on refugee and migrant rights could not be more timely.”

There are 80 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes, equal to about 1 per cent of the human population. 

The online event begins at 3pm and can be joined here: mstar.link/3ytDq8i.