Simon Shaw, a Newham-based volunteer, on the frontline of a continuing refugee and migration ordeal

a banner reading Refugees are Welcome on the ground in front of a group of people — Image courtesy Simon Shaw

This summer in Calais we attended two vigils and one memorial march for four victims of the so-called ‘migration crisis’, two deaths at sea, one suicide and a baby who died in the Catholic refuge. I always use the phrase for these tragedies coined by Fredrick Engels, ‘social murder’. These and the other five that happened this summer, were all preventable and they are a result of European Union and UK government policy.

In a letter to The Guardian this August, I contrasted the rolling news coverage of the tragic deaths of those who drowned in the super yacht off the coast of Sicily with the lamentable muted media response to those who die fleeing war, persecution, poverty and the ever-increasing effects of the climate crisis.

Volunteering with Care4Calias is always a bitter sweet experience. The loss of life and the desperation of the people we support from Africa and Asia is balanced by the amazing solidarity they show each other and the compassion of our young volunteers, which gives me hope for the future.

During the three hours daily we spend with the refugees from; Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan and Afghanistan and other conflict zones, we provide donations of clothes, tents or sleeping bags from our meagre stocks, and play games and give English lessons and hot drinks and biscuits.

Many of the young men play football or cricket, dominoes or just tell us their stories while we deliver English lessons. When we leave they face the brutality of the police, an uncertain future and the hardships of finding somewhere to sleep and keep clean.

Freewheeling down the seaside road one morning on my way to the warehouse and feeling both exhilarated and slightly scared as my cycle computer told me I was doing 35 miles an hour, I saw a van on the wrong side of the road in the distance. As I got nearer I realised it was one of a number of police vehicles herding a group of perhaps 50 refugees who had clearly tried and failed to cross the Channel that morning.

On a good day Dover is visible from this road, just 40 kilometres away, and the last leg of a perilous journey. As I got into the town just before Calais there was a group of refugees looking at the bus stop. I went over and told them there were no buses into town on Sunday.

The police blocked my progress. ‘What are you doing?’ they asked. I feigned no knowledge of French. An officer screamed into my face: “You are interfering with a police operation – GO!” This incident was a snapshot of the inhumane way that those in authority treat refugees.

The news of the recent attempted far right pogroms in the UK had got back to refugees and volunteers and as a result new protocols have been introduced to ban pictures that could identify our location or that of the warehouse.

This so-called migration crisis could so easily be solved. Professor Jonathan Porters of King’s College says: “We could start by recognising that our attractiveness to those who want to come here to work and study is a huge comparative advantage, not a problem.’’

On one of our vigils we hastily painted a banner with just two words: ‘Borders Kill’. Until those in charge heed this message and provide safe and legal routes, there is little doubt that the banner will be needed again.

For more information visit: care4calais.org

A closure with deadly consequences

Newham volunteers Leslie Hare and Simon Shaw tell how closing a refugee camp settlement could have led to tragedy.

The clearing in early September of the mainly Eritrean settlement where Care4Calais usual distributes support may have prompted desperate action by refugees which led to 12 deaths in the Channel.

Our endeavours to support the community with the distribution of blankets, English lessons, games, facilitating hair cuts and phone charging were hampered when the police placed huge boulders on the site as well as clearing tents.

It is likely these actions by the French state, funded partly by the British hastened a decision to attempt a crossing.

The people we support in this settlement come from a nation which has been called the ‘North Korea of Africa’. When they claim asylum in the UK Eritreans have a success rate in the high 90 percent range [WorldData.info 99.4 percent in 2023).

In other words, if legal and safe routes were established, the 12 people (10 female, six children, one pregnant woman) we were supporting, would still be alive today. Instead our government is obsessed with detaining and returning.

A personal journey: Moudathir from Sudan

A group of people alight from the open back of a truck — Sam Mann/Unsplash

One of the refugees told Care4Calais about his experience. “I am Moudathir Bahsir,” he said. “I am from Sudan, where I spent the years 2007 until 2017 in school. In my family there are sixteen children including myself. “I am writing this in the unauthorized refugee settlement in Dunkirk, from which I hope to travel to the United Kingdom, I have travelled here through Chad, Libya, then into Europe through Italy and France. “To make the decision to leave your home for another country is not easy at any age but I was just a teenager, 16 years old – you need a lot of courage. There were many reasons why I made this decision, that are painful to explain. “On the journey here, I suffered a lot especially in Libya, where I crossed the desert by car and on foot. Also, in Libya I was swindled out of most of my money. I had to borrow money from my boss in Libya on the building site and it took me seven months to pay it back. “I was in Libya for six years, I can describe it as being in a circle where nothing changed, but I never gave up. “In 2022 I crossed the sea into Italy and then I continued onto France by train and on foot. Crossing the Alps in France was perhaps the second hardest part of my journey as not only were the mountains hard to climb but the weather was awful.

“Why do I want to go to the UK? My country offers me no opportunity. It is torn apart by war, my father was killed when he was in the army and my mother struggles to provide for the rest of the family. “I am now working really hard to improve my English. This time next year my dream is to be studying and working and settled in the UK.”

For more information visit: https://care4calais.org/

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