British Muslim charity on Grenfell frontline calls for justice

Six years after the Grenfell tragedy, Muslim Aid, which was one of the first charities to respond to the emergency, is renewing calls for accountability and justice for the victims.

Muslim Aid was one of the many voluntary organisations that stepped up to meet the needs of the victims of the Grenfell fire to fill gaps where authorities fell short in their response.

A year later, Muslim Aid produced a report, Mind the Gap: A Review of the Voluntary Sector Response to the Grenfell Tragedy, which analysed the institutional shortcomings that leave communities in social housing vulnerable to fire.

Our report concluded with recommendations based on the success of the collaborative response of non-governmental sector’s action in the immediate and longer-term response phases. Muslim Aid is proud to say one of the recommendations, the formation of the National Emergencies Trust to enable charities to respond to emergencies, has been implemented.

Muslim Aid is proud that some progress has been made based on our response and advocacy, but we are once again supporting victims of the fire in their renewed calls for accountability that claimed the lives of 72 people and created a shadow of trauma within a whole community.

Mustafa Faruqi, Chair of Muslim Aid said, “The Grenfell fire was a disaster that highlighted the vulnerability of the poorest communities living in the heart of one of the richest cities in the world. Unlike many of the natural disasters that Muslim Aid responds to however, this was a man-made disaster and it cannot be right that six years later, no one has been held to account for the deaths of the 72 innocent people that perished.”