Metz Refugee Camp

Today we visited refugees in a camp at Metz, France, near the border with Germany. There are currently around 400 refugees living there, including a great many families.

The living conditions are similar to the Calais jungle just before it closed. Most people are in tents, with pallets often used to keep these off the ground. Many people have cooking facilities and there are limited shared showers and toilets available.

The people we spoke to came from all over the world: the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria; Kosovo, Russia, Macedonia and Serbia. They were nearly all hoping to claim asylum in France. There is a pervasive rumour was that the camp is to be cleared around mid November. It seems that this has happened before, but that it re-emerges in the same way that the Dunkirk camp seems to.

We took 200 blankets and 8 boxers of Rando Wagner’s toothbrush kits, 7 boxes of food, and 25 boxes of coats, clothes and underwear for men, women and children. These took over six hours to distribute but it was well worth it. Many thanks to all the donors who have enabled us to do this.