Boredom is one of the defining features of the Calais camps

AFTER graduating this summer, I decided to volunteer with Care4Calais, a charity that provides aid to refugees in the Calais camps who are trying to reach the UK.

A common misconception seems to be that most refugees in the world are desperate to reach our shores but the total number of refugees in Calais is usually around 700. In 2021, the UN Refugee Agency estimated that the total number of refugees worldwide was 27.1 million.

The “Calais Jungle”, destroyed in 2016, has been replaced by several small unofficial camps in and around Calais. They are in forests or disused building sites – one area is known as “Old Lidl” as it was previously the site of a Lidl store.

The refugees in camps close to the coastline are those who have enough money to pay smugglers to get them across the Channel on boats. These people are a minority and are usually in Calais for a few days or weeks as the boat crossings are generally successful. The majority, less wealthy or unable to access their money, live in camps next to roads and train tracks and are dependent on stowing away on, or underneath, lorries and trains. They remain in the camps for much longer – some people I met had been there for over two years.

Since applications for asylum can only be submitted once an individual is in the UK, it is impossible for anyone in the camps, rich or poor, to make the crossing legally.

I stayed in Calais with five other volunteers in an apartment owned by a French woman. One was a 17-year-old girl from Mexico, but the others were around my age, 22, and variously from Germany, Japan, Portugal, and China. We were told there would be three people in the apartment, but in fact it was three per room, plus the owner’s cat. On my first day, the buses were not running and so my flatmates and I quickly got to know each other better on the hour long walk to the Care4Calais warehouse.

On arrival, we were assigned tasks such as sorting out donated clothes and food, and building new shelves. We cleaned everything we were later to take to the camps: books for English lessons, toys and games for the children, and charging ports that accommodate 30 phones at a time.

Harriet Goldman-Thompson

Each afternoon was spent in one of the several camps where, rather like prisons, a defining feature is boredom. Care4Calais tries to alleviate that. It offers games of cricket, football, Connect Four, and cards. One job that refugees and volunteers often do together is litter picking. Those in the camps have no access to bin bags or rubbish collection services, and so the build-up of rubbish is inevitable.

They also take a suitcase of scissors, razors, mirrors, capes, and folding chairs. This is for the hours of haircutting. People in the camps come from all walks of life and luckily for those in need of a haircut there are plenty of barbers. Whether it’s a quick shave, a fade, or an elaborate series of zig-zag patterns, the barbers will do it.

One of my favourite activities was making friendship bracelets. Some of my best conversations were had during these hours when the relaxation of the braiding enabled talk that otherwise might have felt forced. Tales of people and families trekking across countries; imprisonment; war; persecution for religious beliefs.

We carried out weekly distributions of donated items including hygiene packs, underwear, and clothes for men, women, and children. When distributing hoodies for men, we found that whereas the main concern of the older ones was that they received the correct size, the younger boys were more specific; I received many requests for black zip-up Adidas hoodies. One 15-year-old boy, holding up a lilac hoodie I had given him, asked if I had a different colour that wasn’t “so girly”.

The camps consist of nothing but tents, most of which are shared between two or three people. They are scattered in groups. Along with the refugees’ belongings, the tents are regularly confiscated by the police during the organised “evictions” they carry out every few weeks. They are immediately replaced by Care4Calais and other French and English charities.

As I am writing, the British policy of sending refugees to Rwanda remains in place. It is only by luck that I happened to be born in a country I do not have to flee, and despite some difficult and upsetting sights in the camps, it is the resilience of individuals that was my main takeaway from the experience. I asked a Sudanese refugee I became friends with what he would do if he was sent to Rwanda and he replied without hesitation: “I’ve survived my journey once, I would just do it again”.

• You can donate to Care4Calais at: https://care4calais.org/donate-now/
• Harriet Goldman-Thompson lives in Queen’s Park and is a former pupil of St Margaret’s School in Hampstead