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Refugees Calais: A story of hardship and hope

Care4Calais is a humanitarian charity providing aid and support to the hundreds of vulnerable refugees in the Calais region. Here, SAM PHIPPS, a recent volunteer, talks about his experience with the organisation

YESTERDAY Eltayeb learnt the word knee. He is 17 and his knee is sore from a football tackle. It’s bad news, not because he won’t be able to play football for a while but because he is homeless and being healthy is key for his survival. 

Mohamed is even younger, still 16 for another few months. How many more nights will they have to sleep out? By day he and Eltayeb are among dozens of refugees to seek warmth, shelter and somewhere to charge their phones in a building run by the French charity Secours Catholique. 

Both have fled violence — Eltayeb in Chad, Mohamed in Darfur, Sudan — then endured hellish journeys across the Sahara and the Mediterranean, with hellish stays in Libya or Egypt in between.

Today they sit at a table in the centre and are hungry for English. 
Care4Calais volunteers come here regularly. Back in February I joined them for four days, spending some of that time in a warehouse on the edge of the town, sorting and packing clothes for distribution in Calais and Dunkirk. 

To handle the donations is heartening in itself, a reminder of kindness pouring in from afar. (One giant box contains 50 pairs of brand new rubber boots.) More touching are the hand-drawn cards from children to be passed on to refugees with messages wishing them peace and safety. 

Thirty years ago I got my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate and the training has come in handy again after a long time out. 

We do the present tense. “I live in a forest!” Eltayeb says, and smiles. “I live in a forest!” He can’t believe it either. 
It’s a wood really, on the edge of Calais, but this is no time to split hairs. We do the past tense. 

“Four people died on the boat,” Mohamed says. He doesn’t smile. Not till he gets on to his favourite team again, Manchester United. 
His memory for scores, players and the dates of trophies is amazing. The next teacher needs to look at the future with them. 

With the boys round the table are men from Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Egypt. Nearby others play chess or cards or Connect Four or look at their phones or sleep on the floor. 
At 4.30pm the centre closes and everyone heads slowly out back into the rain. 

But who’s that round the corner? It’s Care4Calais again. More volunteers have arrived in vans — one has sleeping bags and packs of socks, scarves and gloves, the other brings hot tea. 

As people choose stuff and shuffle around against the chill, I talk to a young man who left Afghanistan when the Taliban blew up his father. 

After that he lived in Iran for a year, which he loved. “Iran is a beautiful, beautiful country. I worked there but with no papers so deported back to Afghanistan.” 

He came to France via Germany, which he says also refused to take him. Now he is shivering and coughing in Calais.

Another man, Mhretab, left Eritrea a year ago and also has his heart set on London. “I have two brothers and a sister there.” He will keep working to that goal, however long it takes.

About 1,000 refugees are thought to be living rough in Calais and Dunkirk, a fraction of the 9,000 or so who were in the so-called Calais Jungle until it was destroyed in October 2016. 

They are harassed by police who often take down their tents or ruin them with pepper spray. 

On the other hand, many locals of all ages, from taxi drivers to activists and volunteers such as those at Secours Catholique, are clearly sympathetic. 

On my first night I joined a fundraising ceilidh in a disused silk factory. A large group of volunteers from Soas, London University, were there too. 

They had been working with another charity, Refugee Community Kitchen, which makes, delivers and serves a fantastic number of hot meals every day.

The logistics of sifting through clothes in the warehouse are more complex than I realised — if they’re too large for the malnourished refugees or too impractical, or dirty or torn, they’re no good. 

Most of the stuff is fine, but it has to go in just the right place. Categories for jackets, for instance, are warm/light waterproof/non-waterproof. 

The atmosphere in the warehouse is very friendly, with plenty of chatting and joking, and the more experienced hands do everything they can to help the new arrivals adapt to their various tasks. One or two people make a hot lunch for everyone every day.

Each morning starts with an informal meeting over tea and coffee, with the organisers, Aisha and Natalie, welcoming new volunteers and telling us about the plans for the day. There is often some choice of locations and activities.

On the first distribution run that I join, 50 or 60 Eritrean men, the youngest probably in their late teens, emerge from their makeshift shelters near a roundabout to queue for clothing from the back of the Care4Calais van. 

Two of the long-term volunteers, Alex and Ash, walk briskly to the more tucked-away areas to let people know we are here. 

It’s a welcome surprise — when you are conditioned by so much mainstream media to think of refugees as some faceless group of “others” — to see how strong the individual relationships have become. Many volunteers and refugees don’t just know each other’s names, they greet and embrace like old friends. 

Humour is never far away despite, or maybe because of, the constant struggles.

When you consider what they have all endured to get this far, many things spring to mind — one is that it is obvious none of them wants to be dependent on handouts.  

As I pass medium, small or extra-small clothing along from the back of the van to the long and patient queue of men, it does not take too much to imagine our roles reversed, the lottery tickets handed out differently. 

Another is that Britain is falling pitifully short not only of its moral and legal obligations to take in more refugees but also of its own promises. 

One glimmer of hope for systemic change came in March when a private member’s Bill to reunite refugee families passed its second reading in Westminster after gaining cross-party support. 

In the meantime, to anyone thinking of donating to Care4Calais, I can tell you it’s going to good use. The clothes and equipment and tea are vital. The interaction is vital.  

And to anyone thinking of volunteering here for the first time, I can only say go ahead. It’s a relief and a privilege to be able to offer something practical and you will make some difference, even if it feels like not enough. 

Volunteers and donations are in constant need — if you think you could help, why not contact them today? All their details can be found at www.care4calais.org. For more of Sam Phipps’s writing visit www.samphippswriting.com.

 

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