Meet Mohammed, who is building a new life
Mohammed is a gently-spoken new dad, who dreams of opening his own hairdressing salon. The 24-year-old left Iraq just over two years ago, when his village was destroyed by war. He and his entire family – his parents and eight brothers and sisters – headed for Turkey, but the others were caught and deported back to Iraq. Mohammed carried on alone. “I’m from a village, between Mosul and Erbil. Our village was totally destroyed to the ground because they say it’s a war place. “That time when my family was arrested, that was the worst time in my life. I …
Meet the Sudanese refugee artist painting the migrant crisis.
Yasir*, a victim of the ongoing conflict in the South Kordofan region of Sudan, has been living in the Calais ‘Jungle’ for five months. He lives in a makeshift shelter with six other people, who share everything from food and water to clothes. One of thousands of refugees and migrants living in squalid conditions in one of Europe’s largest shanty towns, Yasir finds it difficult to express himself using words – so he communicates through art. “When you can’t tell your problems to a person, you can tell them to paper,” he says. Although Yasir cannot normally afford to buy …
The inspirational volunteers of Calais
It was a surreal scene: a soccer tournament on a sand-covered space which looked more like a rubbish dump than a football pitch; the players (all wearing tops reading ‘We are Human’) drawn from half-a-dozen countries ranging from Sudan to Afghanistan; in the background a small squad of heavily armed French CRS riot police and the pipes and tanks and gantries of a multinational chemical plant. Welcome to ‘sports day’ in the ‘Jungle’, the infamous refugee camp outside Calais in northern France. Read Andy Pollack’s full article here. …
Weekend Volunteering in Calais
Kate and Maria joined us in Calais volunteering in the refugee camp for a weekend in April. Here is a great video with a selection of images reflecting their experience. …
Milot, 10 & Hamid, 24
My name is Milot I´m 10 years old and I´m from Afghanistan. When I was in Afghanistan I loved to go to play football with my Friends on the street and go to school. I have two brothers they are 24 and 5 years old and one sister, She is 26. Six months ago after I became 10 my dad told me that I was in fighting age and that the militars and talibans were going to ask me to fight, then my older brother Hamid whom had to escape to Iran when I was a baby came back to …
Hope and love in a sea of despair
Care4Calais volunteer and humanitarian reporter, Andy Goss describes the scene as tensions mount in the ‘Jungle’, where an estimated 5,000 desperate people cling to the dream of safety, after fleeing conflict thousands of miles away… The tension was tangible as we moved through the camp. The drizzle had eased, but the fading light of the early evening brought a sharper chill to the air – and many families withdrew to their ragged tents or makeshift shacks early as darkness began to fall. The bigger concern that evening as we sought counsel with community leaders within the ‘Jungle’ was the announcement …
From Aleppo to the Jungle
“My name is Azad. I am from north of Aleppo in Syria. There is fighting in my area, people are shot with rifles, with missiles, with rockets. Jabhat Al Nusrah [the Al-Nusrah Front] is there. I saw on the news that there is fierce fighting in my area today, we don’t know when it will stop. If ISIS catch me they will immediately behead me, first of all because I am Yazidi, and because I am Kurdish. My brothers and sister have left Syria already, only my mother is left there, my father is dead. We have to delete our …
Fleeing the war in Syria
Many of the refugees arriving in The Jungle are traumatised by the experience of war in their own countries, and many have also suffered violence along their way to get to a safe place. Few are willing to have a photograph taken, for fear of being tracked or it affecting an asylum application. This woman from Syria told me “I have been here for more than three months, my husband was a painter and decorator, he was killed, there is a lot of bombing. I am from Daraa, it’s a disaster, we left to save our lives, I brought my …
Shaha, 28
I am from Afghanistan, from the Kunduz province. I studied law in the university of my home town because I love the practice of law and helping people. I started working as a judge for the government of my country when I was just 24 years old. I loved my job and I felt that i was useful to my country and my people, but one day I had to leave because the Taliban were threatening me and my family due to the fact I was working for the government. I had to send my family to Pakistan on the …
Rashid, 28
I’m from Mazari Sharif in Afghanistan, I haven’t been able to study because I have 3 brothers and 4 sisters so I had to work help provide for the family. I started working in a shop when I was 12 years old, then I started working as a taxi driver when I was 16 and after I worked as a chef in my brother’s restaurant, which I loved very much. At the age of 14 the situation in my country was very dangerous because of the Taliban. The national army asked me to join them but as I don’t believe …
