Many people told us today that the problem with the shelters is that they cannot take their tents with them, and if they go, the police come to the sites and confiscate those tents. Today during our distribution the police turned up and took at least two tents from a site. I spoke with people as we watched it happen, and they how aggressive the police are, and how they always turn up whatever the weather.

Refugees here have no respite from the harassment and brutality, not even when the world is frozen.

This afternoon, thanks to your support, we distributed 289 pairs of warm joggers. These are so important because so many of the people we meet are wearing just thin, ripped and wet trackpants or jeans. The guys we gave them to were incredibly relieved to have them, and many people went off the change straight away.

Although there are newly-arrived people wearing too-thin summer clothes and damp, falling-apart shoes, we saw lots of people wearing the warm fleeces, coats and boots we’ve been able to share. Seeing that we’re having an effect and supporting people gave us an extra shot of determination to keep going and help people keep off the cold as much as possible.

The ground everywhere now is covered in white frost most of the time, and frozen hard as iron. The cold pinches your skin and makes you hungry in the day, and people today told us it’s so cold at night they can’t sleep.

No one should be living like this, and our fantastic volunteers are doing all they can to help.

The post Calais Brutality Continues Despite Weather appeared first on Care4Calais.

His brother was 14 years old.

In the biting cold and dark, you could feel how Sunday’s tragedy, together with numerous other rescues and near-fatalities along the coast, has hit Calais hard.

Perhaps that’s because of the awful way these young people died in the icy cold sea.

Perhaps we’d all begun the year subconsciously hoping 2024 would somehow be better.

For me it’s all this, but it’s also the growing awareness of the violent forces behind this tragedy.

It is impossible to say for certain how many people waiting to cross from north France to the UK die in each year, but most of those who try to keep count put the figure at around 30. They would also roughly agree on that being a 30% increase on 2022.

That’s a similar figure to the 36% decrease in the number of people arriving in the UK safely by small boat in 2023; somehow it seems not entirely coincidental.

Since last summer the authorities in France have been more aggressive and intimidatory in their evictions, harassment of refugees and aid workers, and prevention of departures in small boats. We meet people whose boats have been slashed in the water. We know people have died in panics instigated by riot police. We know groups are leaving from less-policed places, making longer and more dangerous journeys.

People take greater risks, and suffer worse attacks. Hardly surprising, then, that the death and injury counts rise.

The UK and French authorities sanitise all this by crediting technology. The UK paid France €72.2m to police its border in 2022-23, and last Louis-Xavier Thirode, Prefect Delegate for Security, claimed it was new drones, vehicles and night-vision tech that had allowed him to reduce the crossings. It sounded so much nicer than beatings and boat-slashing.

To us here it seems very much that any reduction in small boat crossings is being bought with old fashioned violence and intimidation towards Calais refugees. And that makes it clearer than ever that the only way of ever reducing them safely will be by introducing safe routes.

Until that happens, I am deeply sorry to say, we will continue to gather at vigils in the cold and dark in Calais, listening to laments for brothers and sisters and friends among the Calais refugees who sought only a safer and more normal life.

Imogen Hardman, Care4Calais Senior Operations Manager, Calais

Support our campaign for safe routes for refugees: care4calais.org/safepassage/

The post The Significance of the Refugee Deaths at Wimeraux appeared first on Care4Calais.

John, the South Sudanese refugee on the left in the photograph, told me this story at a distribution of bags and chargers one afternoon in Dunkirk. He seemed sad as he remembered home and how he had left with his friend Bato (right) to escape to the UK. As two young men , they knew the militia would come back and either press them into service, or kill them.

They made their way through Libya, crossed the Mediterranean sea in a “very scary” boat, and then trekked through Italy and France. “It was tough,” said Bato, in an understatement that brought a lump to my throat. Enduring the long, hard wait to somehow find a way to the UK as the winter drew in, John, said they now faced the big challenge of keeping up their spirits.

“We have to be strong,” he said. When I asked how, he laughed kindly.

“You start by knowing there are two choices. You live, or you die. You decide you are going to live. You look into your heart, and you make yourself believe it. Then you believe in each other. That’s all.”

It was moving to hear such hard-learned words from such young men, particularly ones who had been so cheerful and friendly. But as I learned as a volunteer that refugees so often have this incredible understand, strength and humour. We were there to support them, but in my week in Calais I learned more than I can say. Good luck, John and Bato; the UK will be all the richer if you finally get there.

B, volunteer

To volunteer in Calais and support refugees like John and Bato, go to https://buff.ly/47uMZ7T

The post John and Bato’s story appeared first on Care4Calais.

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 in horror.

The lorry drove on, apparently unaware of the accident. At the time of writing, the driver had not yet been traced.

Emergency services attended, but were unable to save the man.

Many refugees, particularly those unable to secure a crossing by boat, try to reach the UK by climbing aboard lorries, risking their lives in the process. This latest tragedy demonstrates yet again the risks and perils refugees face every day. The man was the third Sudanese refugee killed in Calais this year – the third young man to have escaped threats at home and travelled thousands of miles, only to die a horrific and lonely death at the border of his destination. Three more have broken limbs this month alone. No one can record or imagine the trauma suffered by friends forced to witness these tragic accidents.

By any measure these deaths and this suffering on our border ought to be universally regarded as unacceptable. Perhaps it would be if it were not for the rhetoric of some politicians that makes it easier to see refugees here as somehow less than human.

For the sake of young men like today’s victim, we must make sure people know of these dangers, and continue to fight for humanbe border policies. A system of #SafePassage for victims of war and persecution would end these deaths and injuries. Let us keep campaigning for it, and treat life as precious, rather than something to be risked in desperation in the Calais night.

The post Another refugee tragically killed in Calais appeared first on Care4Calais.

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 awful picture, he was tearful and overwhelmed. He asked if he could use the phone to call his family, as he had not been able to get through on his own. To his mounting anguish, though, he couldn’t.

“I know my home looks like this,” he said. “But I have not been able to speak to any friends, any family.”

He looked through more photographs, shaking his head. “My home, my home my home…” All this at 17 years old; his bravery was something I will never forget.

The Sudanese refugees’ mood in Calais is changing

We’re not yet seeing a large influx of people here who have fled the current outbreak of armed conflict, but Sudan has been dangerous for many people for many years, and the threats people have escaped, and the journeys they have been on, are always terrifying. The main difference now is the worry and concern; the charging board we provide have never been more important.

There are a lot of Sudanese people at the site where we were. The atmosphere is often very positive, but right now there’s a sense of worry under the surface. When you talk to the refugees there, you often get a sense of the anxiety over the situation at home.

We listen and support people, and help with the services we provide and essentials we give out. Last week we gave out 150 hygiene packs here, and today it was 125 waterproof coats. These are so important, because although it’s getting warmer, it rains a lot in Calais. It’s so hard for refugees to get dry again if they’re wet.

Adil showed me more pictures and videos from Sudan, some of them of horrific things. Bombed hospitals. Bombed out homes. Thousands of families escaping with a few belongings. It’s terrible to think that people fleeing this to the UK could be sent to Rwanda.

Adil had left Sudan before the new outbreak of violence. He just wanted an ordinary life, and was keen to learn English so that he could study and work when he got to the UK. Having seen his resilience, I really hope he makes it, and get the safety he deserves.

Can you help?

It’s amazing how people manage to stay cheerful in the face of it all; today towards the end of the distribution we put on music and some were even dancing. Playing football, or on the games tables, listening to music and just talking to people is an escape from the harsh monotony of life as a refugee. As a volunteer, it can be challenging some days, but then on others, seeing the sheer resilience of people can inspire you as well.

We help refugees like Adil everyday with phone charging, support and other essential items and services – but we can only do this together with you. Could you help by being a donor? Any amount, large or small, makes a big difference: to donate, go here

The post Helping refugees affected by the Sudanese war appeared first on Care4Calais.

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 he settled with a few others around the “English Learning station I was running on a distribution.

Picking up books from the pile, they enthusiastically ran their fingers over English words that accompanied pictures and spelt out what they saw. 

Faisal pointed to his elbow and asked me hopefully, “Eyebrow?” 

“Elbow”, I said. 

“I learn, but I forget. English not easy”. 

He spent two hours sitting next to me, spelling out words, and reading out sentences. I downloaded an English-Pashto translator on my phone and we made some progress in learning sentences like, “My English is not very good”, “I need to see a doctor”, “I want to call my family”. 

Sentences he would need to use most frequently so he could survive in this new world.

He told me the story of how he had left home overnight, and made his way from Taliban-occupied Afghanistan to Calais, via Iran, Turkey and Greece. It had been hard: once, he pointed to a big open wound on his right leg and to a few boys at the other end of park playing football. “I like football,” he said, “but no play now”.

I had organised donations for Care4Calais over the past few years, but this was my first time at the camp and I was keen to make it count. Nothing could have prepared me for the faces, stories and lives that I saw at the make-shift camp in Calais that day. Young boys from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea and Sudan – their full, normal lives as students, workers, part of happy families ravaged by war, famine, and takeover by the Taliban and so many other dangers.

Over six hours at make-shift camps at Calais and Dunkirk that day and the next, my friend Aji and I must have met several hundred people. As we began packing up to get back to the warehouse on our lost day, it suddenly hit me that the semblance of a normal life the refugees had had over those few hours was on borrowed time. 

It me determined to go back again next year for a longer period. We must keep on trying, for the sake of Faisal and all those like him.

The post Meet Faisal, refugee and aspiring journalist appeared first on Care4Calais.

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 the lives lost on 24 November 2021 be forgotten.

Stand Up To Racism, Care4Calais and the TUC are organising a vigil to take place at 6pm on 24 November outside Westminster Abbey in London. We will say the names of those lost, and gather to condemn the hostile environment that allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place, and is now being intensified by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the current government.

Please join us there if you can.

https://www.facebook.com/events/429947779349503/?ref=newsfeed

The post Never forget: A vigil for the Channel drownings appeared first on Care4Calais.

The boy, who I’ll call Tariq, suddenly disappeared, only to reappear a few moments later with a sticking plaster. It was such a moving thing to do – he had been through so much, but he could still notice and help with my little problem. I have only been in Calais for a week but I’ve already learned that the refugees here often have big hearts.

We talked some more, and he told me that a few days ago he had tried to cross to the UK in a boat, but but the engine had failed. They had been stranded on the sea among high waves, and terrified until they were rescued.

But still, he said, he would be trying again tomorrow (that’s now today). It was a chilling reminder of their situation; even that terrifying risk is better than what they have left behind.

I’ve met a lot of Afghan people in my time here so far. There are many in Dunkirk – in fact there are so many, and they like making friendship bracelets so much that we buy big reels of thread in green, black and red, the colours of there Afghan flag! Small things like that are so important when they’re this far from home. Like Tariq, they all just want to get and job and work, to have a normal life, and most feel sure the British Government would welcome them.

Their faith in us is so at odds with what some of our politicians say, it’s heartbreaking sometimes. I know Tariq has left now, and he must be either still at sea or in the UK. I really hope he gets the welcome he deserves in the end.

The post Tariq’s story appeared first on Care4Calais.

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 become all too common here in the last few weeks.

They had decided to risk their lives crossing the Channel, but their boat had sunk just off the French shore and they had been rescued. As they own only the clothes they stand up in, they had had to get as dry as they could and then spend the day waiting for the damp to leave them – not easy in the autumn in Northern France.

Some 970 refugees have been reported rescued in the seas off the French coast this month. It’s easy to see that as just a statistic, but that’s almost 1000 people who risked their lives trying to find safety, who must have been terrified as they waited for their rescuers, and then who had to live with the memories afterwards. It’s horrific.

For us it means there are lots more people who are soaking wet at night needing dry clothing as a minimum – we make sure to look out for them to offer all the help we can. Of course that’s what we did for the men I met.

This situation is chilling when you think that we’re approaching the first anniversary of the worst-ever loss of life by refugees trying to cross; as many readers will remember, in November last year, 29 people died horrifically when their dinghy sank. The horrific truth is that nothing significant has been done to prevent it happening again.

This should be the real story when we talk about 30,000 refugees crossing the Channel; 30,000 lives being needlessly risked, and that risk increasing as the weather starts to worsen. It is the most important reason of all that we need to provide safe passage for refugees now.

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The man, Sudanese and his his twenties, was hit by a vehicle while walking on the road near the village of Nouvelle-Eglise at 6am on Thursday morning. Emergency services rushed to the scene, but the man was dead when they arrived.

The man had only been in Calais for a few days, according to the La Voix Du Nord news organisation, so he was probably less aware of the dangers faced refugees here.

He is the fifth refugee to be killed in Calais just this year. This shocking number brings home how dangerous and precarious refugees lives are in northern France. It is tragic for people who have suffered so much in their home countries and then on their journeys to die so needlessly.

This death shows yet again the desperate need for a modern, sensible system of processing asylum claims that would allow refugees safe passage to the UK. This would at one stroke reduce the terrible risks and dangers people have to face to try to reach safety. Instead, the UK Government still insists on pushing through its anti-refugee bill, which will only make things worse.

We now know it is possible to have a visa system to bring people to the UK safely, so why on earth are some still dying as they try to cross the channel?

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