I was also among those on the Birmingham convoy to Calais on the 18th June. For those of you who may not know, we arrived early thanks to the organisers of the convoy and so we managed to get across the border before the London convoy arrived and were prevented from crossing, so credit to Anne-Marie, Danny and Georgie for their tireless work and quick-thinking on the day.
I’ll just give an overview of the day and what we saw, and the key things I took from the experience.
As mentioned we arrived at Dover earlier than expected, and the group took the decision to cross early and spend more time in Calais. The journey was quick and painless, but as we reached Calais we found out the London convoy had been refused crossing and that the French police were not allowing people into the camp. After a short discussion we decided to continue to the warehouses nearby where the donations are sorted and to speak to the volunteers and refugees there.
The people at the warehouses welcomed us and gave us a brief run through of how they operate. They told us about the things they deal with in general, how the donations are sorted and the amount of unusable and/or inappropriate donations they receive (such as mini-skirts and high heels). They also spoke about more pressing matters, for example how donations had not been so low before, and the blocking of the few tons of aid being brought over by the London Convoy was a set-back they could have done without.
They told us of the good and the bad of the camp; how people had come together to build and create and try to live their lives as best they can. However a large proportion of the camp was destroyed earlier in the year, leaving many people without the makeshift homes they and the volunteers had built. So overcrowding and poor living conditions were an unfortunate truth of life in the camp, and tensions do run high at times.After speaking with the volunteers and Clare Moseley (a founder of Care 4 Calais, one of if not the first UK charity to deliver aid in the camp), we went we went to a nearby farm house to see an exhibition of the art and craft work that had been created by the refugees and some UK primary school children (I’m pretty sure there are some pictures somewhere on Facebook if people are interested in seeing what was displayed). After going around the exhibit and leaving messages for the refugees if we wished, we went behind the farmhouse to a small field to hear some of the refugees speak.
This is the part of the day that stays with me, as it was the part at which I was reduced to feeling a mixture of empathy, humility, sadness and shame which shook me to the core and I think has permanently readjusted my views of myself and the world in which I live. Knowing that other people are living in appalling conditions, a relatively short distance from my home country is one thing. But listening to these people speak and bare their souls on a stage in front of a crowd of strangers put across an understanding of the situation like a punch to the gut, and in a way that watching media reports and reading news articles cannot convey. To hear a man old enough to be my father or grandfather thank us for making him feel human again; to hear a man young enough to be my little brother question if we thought he was an animal and that this was what he dreamed for his life…hearing these things completely and utterly humbled me.
After we had listened to the refugees speak and answer questions, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to the coach and then the port. We had a short discussion on the ferry for people to reflect and raise any thoughts or questions they had, and not long after we were back, to our country, city and homes.
Since going on the convoy I have done what I can to increase my understanding of the refugee crisis and all the issues surrounding it, and the situation is dauntingly huge. There were over a million asylum claims within the EU in 2015 alone. They came from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea to name a few. The factors causing their displacement are complex, and the many organisations doing what they can to help are in all honesty overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis. But they continue to do what they can, and I am going to keep trying to understand and do what I can. Because to close my eyes and say ‘it’s too much’ seems dishonest and weak when the people whose realities I struggle to understand, struggle to survive and keep up the hope that their future has a chance of being better than their present.
So if I could ask you to do one thing it would be to inform yourself. Don’t just take my word for it, read, speak to people, go to the camp and form your own opinions. Calaidapedia.co.uk is a good place to start and if you have a question just google it and see what it throws up. The reality of the situation is that people are suffering, not just in Syria and Iraq, but in Greece, France and in the UK. So inform yourselves, and if it feels right, do what you can to help, they are people, just like us.
By Jangir Sidhu, SUTR Birmingham and Teachers for Social Justice West Midlands.