Distributing urgently-needed tents in Calais

Today our volunteers in Calais have been truly amazing, handing out tents to deperate people after new mass eviction in Calais left hundreds of refugees without any shelter.

French police entered the site this morning, herding crowds of frightened men, women and children onto waiting buses to be driven away to holding centres. Many did not have time to pack their things, meaning they left behind valuable items and documents.

The eviction was all the more painful to the people at the site because it came just 24 hours after one of their friends, a young man from Sudan who lived here, died after falling from a lorry. When we went to the site in the afternoon, we gave out hot drinks, chocolate and orange juice to comfort people after the shock.

“This is our life,” one Sudanese guy told us sadly. “To live with danger every day.”

We gave out enough tents and sleeping bags for 60 people who had been left behind. After the eviction, clearance teams had arrived to pull up tents and load them into vans to be disposed of. (In one of the pictures, you can see the vans as they were being loaded.)

The tents we were able to give out will be such a help, and people were so happy to receive them, knowing they’d be staying warm and dry tonight.

The refugees who were bussed away are expected to begin returning tomorrow, althought they will find their site has been dug up to make it more inhospitable.

We will be back with tents for them, but this means we will desperately short again, and we urgently need your help. If you have a tent or sleeping bag you can donate, please do – just get in touch with one of our collection points around the country.

Alternatively, just £14 will buy a tent, and £7 will buy a sleeping bag

: https://care4calais.org/…/support-our-emergency-appeal…/