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 …
Another refugee tragically killed in Calais
Today another refugee was tragically killed in Calais. The 25-year-old Sudanese man died after falling under the wheels of a lorry after being hit by a lorry in the early hours of this morning, French newspapers report. According to other refugees interviewed at the scene, the man had run behind the vehicle as it left the parking lot, hoping to get into it somehow. When it came to a halt, he tried to climb between the trailer and the cab when it stopped. When it began to move again he slipped, and fell beneath the wheels as his friends watched …
Helping refugees affected by the Sudanese war
Today I learned a heart-breaking lesson about how important our phone charging services are. When we’re giving out food and clothing, we also provide big banks of charging points, and sometimes we give out charging packs too. This afternoon Adil, a 17-year-old refugee, asked to borrow my phone while his was charging. “I will show you a picture of my home,” he said. I thought he just wanted to show me where he was from. In fact he found Facebook and showed me a photograph a ransacked and damaged house. It was his actual home in Sudan. Staring at the …
180 coats distributed in Calais
On Saturday we gave out more than 180 of these warm jackets to refugees in Calais, and boy were they badly needed. A lot of the refugees in the queues were newly-arrived in northern France, and dressed in drastically inadequate clothes like t shirts, thin cotton jumps, and bits of light sportswear. Clothing like this is no use against the bitterly cold winds and rain that whip into Calais at this time of year, and you could see many of the guys were freezing. It felt quite sombre compared to usual distributions, because at the request to guys observing Ramadan, …
Meet Faisal, refugee and aspiring journalist
When he lived in Afghanistan, Faisal dreamed of becoming a journalist, but boys his age were being forcibly recruited by the Taliban and similar outfits. Although he held out, keeping his head down and hanging onto his ambition as long as he could, he knew thart if he didn’t leave, he would eventually be forced to join “them”. And so he packed his dreams and a few possessions, and set off to make the long journey to Europe, where he believed he would be able to lead the life he wished for. I met him in Calais when …
This wonderful gift brightened our day in Calais
Yesterday we were going through our mail at the Calais warehouse when we noticed a mysterious, lumpy package from the UK. Opening it, we found dozens of EU-plug phone chargers, a power bank and a bag of Euros and cents – and a note explaining where it had come from. It turned out they were from some young refugees – all under 18 and travelling by themselves – who had crossed the Channel. Realising the stuff was unusable in the UK, they had saved it all so they could send it back for refugees in France. Connie, a former C4C …
A new coat made this refugee feel first class!
This week in Calais we gave out 300 brand new winter coats to refugees who sleep outside. It wasn’t a minute too soon as temperatures are dropping and the nights here are long and cold. The highlight of my day was a guy who found the coats were brand new and said “Today I am smart, I go first class!” He asked me to take his photo, so here it is. The other major benefit of new coats is we buy ones that are waterproof, breathable, have warm linings and a hood. It matters when you are outside 24/7. I …
Never forget: A vigil for the Channel drownings
On 24 November last year, 32 men, women and children died in the English Channel when their flimsy boat sank in the freezing cold sea, and British and French authorities ignored their desperate calls for help.. Those authorities face countless questions about what happened that fateful night, but a year on the victims’ families are still waiting for answers. They have been let down appallingly by the British and the French states, and at the very least they deserve explanations about what happened their loved ones. For the victims and their families, we demand justice, and we will never let …
Almost 1000 refugees rescued from the Channel this month
Early this morning we were out a food distribution in Calais when I noticed a group of Sudanese refugees looking very subdued and downcast. I was a bit worried about them, so decided to see if everything was ok. As I got closer, I realised that all their clothes were wet. Not just caught-in-the-rain wet, they looked as if they’d been completely soaked from head to foot. When I asked what had happened to them, they explained there had been “a problem with the boat” and made plunging signs with their hands. I understood; they had experienced something that has …
Hassoun’s story
Being a refugee in Calais has shocked me. I don’t understand why some people here hate us so much. I didn’t expect the people here to be like this, chasing us away and shouting horrible things at us. The police are the worst – it’s almost like they are the Janjaweed militia I was running away from. My name is Hassoun. I’m 21 and I live in an area of Calais they call Old Lidl. I’m just trying to get to the UK to join my uncle and cousins who are there. It’s mostly Sudanese where I live and, as …
