To Calais with love
Union Matters January 17 2019
Members of the CWU’s Race Advisory Committee have just returned from a mercy mission to Calais amid mounting concern for the plight of refugees living in conditions that have deteriorated markedly since the French authorities dismantling of the notorious ‘Jungle’ camp.
With Europe’s refugee crisis showing no signs of abating – and grim evidence suggesting that the number of asylum seekers drowning in their desperate attempt to cross the Mediterranean is once again on the up – there are still estimated to be more than 3,000 refugees sleeping rough around the French channel port.
Amid rapidly dropping temperatures and the worst of winter still to come, the UK-based Care4Calais charity is one of just a handful of organisations providing rudimentary support for destitute individuals who are now more isolated and vulnerable than ever.
For some years the CWU’s Race Advisory Committee (RAC) has closely supported the charity’s efforts to provide the very basics of life to stateless individuals who are literally living on the margins of society – and last autumn it launched an appeal with a view to delivering a substantial consignment of aid just when it is needed most.
That came to fruition on Saturday, when six RAC members in two vehicles – including a Transit van packed with warm clothing, sleeping bags, tents, toiletries and non-perishable foodstuffs – made the journey from CWU headquarters in Wimbledon to a bleak and rainy Calais by Eurotunnel.
Their first stop was Care4Calais’ warehouse on the outskirts of the channel port, where RAC members Amarjite Singh, Sajid Shaikh, Winston Richards, Colin Bell, Prince Kingsley-Faborode and Linford Gibbons helped unload and sort the aid.
They then accompanied outreach workers and paramedics from an associated charity on a distribution run to an area close to where The Jungle, despite its notoriety, at least provided some semblance of sanctuary and sanitation for its desperate inhabitants.
Fevzi Hussein of the union’s equalities department – who organised Saturday’s combined fact-finding and aid delivery visit explains: “Since the dismantling of The Jungle and the forced dispersal of its residents, the plight of refugees has, if anything, got even more desperate.
“Instead of there being one big settlement of refugees which at least had running water and some basic attempts at sanitation, now smaller groups of refugees are living under bridges, on wasteland and in forests without power or running water at all.
“The weather was really cold at the weekend, but we came across Ethiopian guys who were wearing flip-flops without any socks, and it immediately strikes you how thin everyone is…they’re literally wasting away.”
With The Jungle now gone, the continuing humanitarian crisis has fallen off the media radar, presenting additional challenges for charities like Care4Calais – both in terms of maintaining the public support on which it relies and the practical challenge of getting the aid to those who need it most.
Care4Calais has effectively tackled the latter problem by distributing mobile phones to multiple groupings of refugees in order to maintain contact and ensure they know when and where aid distribution will occur.
Humanity in the misery…
Amongst the many items distributed by the CWU’s RAC members and Care4Calais outreach staff on Saturday were 300 pairs of new shoes that had been bought by the charity using monetary donations.
With temperatures plunging and the wet weather causing additional misery to the large number of refugees with disintegrating or virtually non-existent footwear, the provision of even the most basic supplies makes a huge difference to morale.
Whenever delivering aid, Care4Calais also takes out mobile generators with extensions providing phone charging points, electric hair clippers and fleeting moments of broadband access for individuals who are often desperate to contact loved-ones in different parts of the world.
Saturday’s aid distribution was also accompanied by a French medical charity which provided free treatment for a wide range of conditions including open sores – a lifeline for run-down and weather beaten individuals who cannot access normal health services.
“The stories you hear are harrowing,” stresses Fevzi. “We spoke to one young guy from the Congo – one of the most unstable countries in Africa – who’d walked through eight or nine African countries to get to Libya where he bought from a people trafficker a place on a small boat that did the treacherous journey from Tripoli to the coast of Italy – from here he made it on foot to Calais.
“Journeys like that are filled with immense danger, exploitation and suffering.”
Since 1993, well over 34,000 refugees are known to have perished trying to reach Europe, the majority being lost at sea but many others dying in the backs of trucks, killed by perilous conditions in camps or by the extreme stress of their situation, leading them to take their own lives.
The actual death toll, however, is undoubtedly far higher, because the official tally only includes reported deaths.
Indeed, given the increasingly ‘hidden’ nature of the refugee crisis in the Nord Pas de Calais, it’s anyone’s guess how many of those sleeping rough out of the public gaze will succumb to freezing conditions when the worst of the winter weather takes hold.
Yet, despite the awful conditions, the basic human instinct to carry on persists – and during Saturday’s visit to Calais some RAC members joined in with a game of cricket being played by a group of young men from Iran and Afghanistan.
“You never seek to be humbled out when you meet these people,” Fevzi concludes. “The age profile of the refugees, and certainly those we met on Saturday, was very young – I’d say the vast majority being between 15 and 25.
“You can’t help but be shocked and upset, but it’s also inspiring to hear the stories of people who put all of our own problems into perspective.
“People should think twice when they heard commentary from the current Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, when he questions the authenticity of the refugees’ status. When you get a glimpse into their terrible situation the politics of fear and hate is exposed for precisely what it is – because the fact is that most of us wouldn’t be prepared to see an animal living in those conditions.”
Reflections of the RAC…
“Living in the most appalling conditions exposed to the cold and rain of a European winter and no end in sight is daunting enough, despite this I saw people from different parts of the world come together to cultivate a spirit of make do and mend and of the need to co-operate in desperate circumstances. A humbling experience that will stay with me.”
-Winston Richards
“Seeing refugees again doesn’t make it any easier; we can never know the pain they must be enduring in their minds, with humanity letting them down so badly. I often wonder if they think we’re kind?”
-Colin Bell
“It was great to see past and present RAC members working in unity helping to distribute aid to the refugees in Calais. These brothers and sisters rely on support from us and we must carry on doing what we can to help them.”
-Sajid Shaikh
“It’s my third trip to Calais and every time I visit It gets more emotional and I want to do more to help. It is even more emotional and heart warming when your grandchildren, your community and your members donate towards buying the essential goods for the refugees.”
-Amarjite Singh
“It was an unforgettable experience for me. Calais refugees need continuous helping hands and provisions.”
– Prince Kingsley- Faborode
“Humanity has failed these people. Driving through Kent on the way to Folkestone, the vastness of the countryside, which was all empty makes a complete mockery of the far-right rhetoric that this island is full to bursting.”
-Linford Gibbons
- In addition to the many donated items delivered to Care4Calais by the RAC on Saturday were a number of cash donations – including a cheque for £500 from the CWU’s Nottingham & District Branch and £400 from the South London, Surrey & North Hampshire branch. Generous donations were also received from the Cardiff Gurdwara and members at Cardiff Mail Mail Centre
The CWU’s Race Advisory Committee is planning to step up its work with Care4Calais and also to forge new links with other charities working with refugees in northern France, including one that runs a women and children’s centre in Dunkirk. For more information, contact Fevzi Hussein on 020 8971 7388 or email fhussein@cwu.org