Appeal to help Mongolian circus performers stranded in West Berkshire

Eight artistes have been unable to get a flight back home due to Covid-19 travel restrictions

A FUNDRAISING campaign has been launched to help eight international circus performers who have been left stranded in West Berkshire due to the coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

The Mongolian artistes, who are living at Zippos Circus headquarters in Enborne, have been out of work since the Government shut all theatres on March 17 and, with no recourse to public funds, are currently surviving on donations from West Berkshire Food Bank.

Thanks to the food bank and help from Greenham Trust, some have managed to make it back home.

It is now hoped that around £6,000 can be raised to try and get the remaining artistes back to their home country on the next flight to Mongolia, which is scheduled to leave Germany on Friday next week.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, the founder and director of Zippos Circus, Martin Burton, said: “Boris [Johnson] announced at 5.15pm on March 17 that all live performances would shut with immediate effect and so the guys instantly became out of work.

“The circus starts in mid-February, so by March 17 these guys would have only done two or three weeks work and wouldn’t have had much of a chance to save.

“A lot aren’t penniless or poor, but they had been home all winter and many wouldn’t have come here with a lot of money in the knowledge they were coming to do at least 11 months work.

“The last flight back to Mongolia left on March 17, so the Mongolian guys just missed that.

“There has since been a flight to Mongolia and West Berkshire Foodbank helped enable two of four we have managed to return home, but we had to fly them from London to Frankfurt as the flight was from Germany.”

Many of the international artistes, who have come to Zippos from Argentina, Kenya and Morroco, have no access to public funds due to the terms of their Tier 5 visa.

Mr Burton said that for the same reasons, many had “not been able to go on any of the Chancellor’s marvelous schemes”.

He added: “They are not asylum seekers. They are not able to ever stay in this country for more than 12 months due to the visa.

“They pay something called an immigration house surcharge, which pays for their national health insurance if they need it so they are not unfairly drawing upon the system – they have paid into it.

“They pay taxes but can’t access public funds due to this visa, so they had no choice but to register with West Berkshire Food Bank, who have been exceptional.

“Not only do they provide them with food, but also come and check to see if they are okay.

“They even helped the two Mongolian performers get back home.”

Mr Burton said that “nobody was giving us a date” on when circuses and could reopen, but was confident that it would be “months away, not years away”.

He added that the circus itself has been unable to access grants from West Berkshire Council because it doesn’t pay business rates.

In a plea to MPs recently, Mr Burton said: “The circus sector and other showmen feel forgotten by the department for digital, culture, media and sport, which seems to understand buildings but has ignored/forgotten the outdoor event industry.”

The appeal to get the artistes home is being led by Caritas, the social action agency of the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth.

The agency covers the whole of Berkshire and Hampshire, as well as parts of Dorset and Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight.

Caritas director Kevin Gallagher, said: “We are helping provide the performers with some food provisions and have also financially assisted two of them to return home but are now looking for funding to help the remaining performers return home.”

If people would like to help they can contact Mr Gallagher by emailing kgallagher@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk or calling 07388 994057.

If you would like to donate funds to help get the performers home, you can pay the money into the following account, with the reference ‘Zippo Performers’.

Account name: PRCDTR DIOCESAN CARITAS

Sort Code: 30-80-27

Account number: 30684560