A giant puppet representing a child refugee will arrive in Britain for the first time today.

Little Amal will be at Folkestone Harbour Arm at 4pm.

She will have come 8,000km (4,971 miles)across Europe from the Syrian border.

To greet Little Amal, Folkestone Fringe and Creative Folkestone are gathering a mass of choirs and singers to sing a specially composed song of welcome by Anil Sebastian of London Contemporary Voices.

Amal, 3.5 metre (11ft 6in) tall, is on a journey called The Walk and the project involves the international theatre company Good Chance and Syrian artist duo UV Lab.

Amal is travelling through eight countries to shine a light on the stories of millions of child refugees.

Each city, town and village that she travels through is welcoming her with a cultural event staged by local artists.

Amal was created by the Handspring Puppet Company, famous for the life-sized animal puppets for the play War Horse, about a cavalry horse in the First World War.

She will be in Dover's Pencester Gardens tomorrow and from 6pm leave in a lantern procession for Dover Castle.

She will be in Canterbury on Thursday, at Butter Market from noon, and go onto London and Oxford, finishing in Manchester on November 3.