Ten-year-old school children given lectures by 'irregular' migrants through government-funded charity
School children were given a lecture by irregular migrants in Lancashire
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A government-funded charity has been facilitating visits by irregular migrants to visit children of primary school age, GB News can report.
In November 2022 Year 7 pupils at Ripley St Thomas CE Academy in Lancaster were given a lecture by an Iranian asylum seeker who spent three years travelling to the UK from Iran and had not yet had his asylum application approved by the Home Office.
The school’s website describes the session as being focussed on “media representations of refugees and asylum seekers” and featuring “two guest speakers from the charity Global Link”.
The Iranian asylum seeker was joined by a case worker from Afghanistan, both of whom spoke to the pupils about their lives.
The talk was facilitated by Global Link, a charity based in Lancashire, which has since 2019 received £454,930 from government grants and contracts.
The money was provided for purposes such as promoting “community integration”, hosting a local “refugee week”, and running a virtual reality experience that follows the footsteps of an individual travelling from Syria to the UK.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the ChannelPAThe charity is led by Executive Director Gisela Renolds, a former Green Party election candidate, and runs a range of programmes in the North West region.
This includes the “NWMigrationStories project” which informs local school children that the North West region has been shaped and defined by migration for centuries, a mobile refugee exhibition used by local schools to convey the stories of those travelling to the UK irregularly, as well as supporting the campaign for black history to be included in the school curriculum.
However, concern has been voiced by campaigners after it was revealed that the charity had been facilitating visits to classrooms by irregular migrants being processed by the Home Office.
These visits have been taking place since 2017, where individuals from Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Albania have been engaging with school children across Lancashire.
The Illegal Migration Bill gives ministers powers to detain nearly all migrants who arrive in the UK illegally and remove themPARobert Bates, Director at the Centre for Migration Control, told GB News that “something is going seriously wrong in our country”.
He continued: “This charity, which acts as a left-wing campaigning organisation, is facilitating irregular migrants to give lectures to young children in British schools for the sake of their own ideological commitment to open borders.”
“This is inappropriate as the topic of illegal and legal migration is highly political, and presenting one side of this contentious debate to ten-year-old children is morally wrong.”
“This is to say nothing of the ridiculous claims made by the charity that Britain has somehow always been a nation of immigration. The huge inflows that we have seen over the last thirty years are an aberration that is sowing a form of societal discord without parallel in the history books.”
The charity advertises its services to those schools that are part of the government’s ‘Global Learning Programme’ and encourages school officials to arrange “assemblies and workshops for your pupils co-delivered by a Syrian or Sudanese refugee with Global Link”.
Anna McGover, a political commentator, said: “It is incredibly concerning that a government-funded charity is facilitating visits by irregular migrants to our schools, particularly when these individuals haven't even had their asylum applications approved.”
“The idea that young, impressionable pupils are being lectured on such a highly contentious and politically charged issue is not just inappropriate—it's morally wrong.”
“The government's decision to fund such an organisation with nearly half a million pounds is baffling and frankly, a misuse of taxpayer money.”
“Our schools should be prioritising the education of our children, rather than indoctrinating them with biassed agendas which they would be too young to understand.”
Connor Tomlinson, a political and societal commentator, said: “It is irresponsible of this school to represent a sanitised view of immigration and asylum claims to impressionable schoolchildren.”
“While the British public are compassionate toward victims of war and political persecution, the truth must be told that the asylum system can and has been exploited by those who pose a threat to public safety.”
“We had recent examples like Clapham alkali attacker, Abdul Ezedi; and Moroccan asylum seeker Ahmed Ali Alid, who murdered a pensioner after saying "for the people of Gaza".”
Global Link and Ridley St Thomas School were approached for comment.