This summer I have been at the centre of one of the media stories of the year. As a volunteer with Care4Calais, which gives aid and solidarity to refugees in northern France and into Belgium, we have hosted the Daily Mirror, The Times, Swedish State Television and had our radar honed for a reporter from The Sun who was allegedly sniffing around.

Since the destruction of the Calais Jungle in the Autumn of 2016, many neighbours and friends in Newham, are confused when I say I am on my way again to volunteer with Care4Calais, as the French and UK governments’ tactic of destroying the settlement for perhaps 7000 people made many think the problem had gone away.

While the world is in turmoil and our asylum -seeking process is such a mess, there will continue to be hundreds of young and talented people festering in Calais and Dunkirk and Brussels; from Sudan, Kurdistan, Syria, Afghanistan and other conflict zones.

Another question I get asked regularly is why so many want to come to the UK. The simple answer is that they don’t – only around one per-cent of refugees in Europe are targeting the UK as their final destination; usually because they have family here and they speak English.

Sadly, as a volunteer you quickly get used to the plight of the refugees. It was therefore a revelation to me that when I introduced the Daily Mirror photographer to an Iranian couple and their 11-month old daughter, who are sleeping rough in Calais, he was visibly shaken.

11-month-old daughter of Iranian couple who is sleeping rough in Calais

He apologised for his emotions as we walked away. I later discovered that he had lost both his legs to an IED in Afghanistan and had covered all the world’s recent crises.

He said:

“I am sorry. I’ve got kids of my own, this situation is ridiculous, why are we allowing this to happen?”

Many refugees do make it to communities like ours. Before lock-down I went to get what little hair I still have cut in Manor Park; ‘Remember me in Dunkirk?’, my barber asked, and as a thank-you he gave me an ear and nose wax job on the house – what a reward.

Simon Shaw is a school teacher who lives in Newham

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