Panic and fear now gripping refugees in Calais

Today in Calais I talked to Ali, a 20-year-old refugee who was so confused and frightened by the news from the UK that it broke my heart.

 

Ali had spent all weekend reading about the Illegal Migration Bill becoming law. “Why doesn’t the UK want me?” He asked. “Why don’t they understand?”

 

Ali fled Sudan when his family were killed, and he knew he would be killed too if the militia found him. All he wants is to be safe. But now he’s in an impossible situation. In France, the police take his tent every few days. He thinks if he goes to the UK, he will be imprisoned in a barge or sent to Rwanda. “I can’t go to Libya because I was kidnapped and kept in prison there. I can’t go back to Sudan because they might kill me.”

He was close to tears. “Where can I go?” he said. “Tell me, where can I go?”

 

All the volunteers in Calais have been shocked by the huge amount of difficult conversations we’ve had with refugees this weekend. The people we support here in Calais are terrified.

 

Everyday you hear stories from people of the violence, persecution and suffering they have escaped in their home country. You hear about dangerous journeys they have made to reach Europe. In France, many have been harassed and abused simply for being refugees.

 

Despite all of this, they are even more scared of what will happen now because of the new law in the UK.

 

Because of this, people in Calais are taking even more risks to get to the UK before these laws are acted upon. In the last few days there has been a lot of talk about the picture shown here, taken by a photographer called Johan Ben Azzouz from La Voix Du Nord newspaper. It shows a dinghy overloaded with refugees setting off from the beach in Boulogne in broad daylight, in full view of holidaymakers.

 

Boulogne is much further from the UK than Calais, so the journey is more dangerous. Boats like this has not been seen setting off like this before, and it’s a sure sign that refugees, desperate and out of options, are now taking more and more risks

 

That means more people are likely to die from dangerous journeys in the weeks and months ahead.

 

When people have no other choice they do desperate things. People like Ali have no other choice.

 

I, volunteer