As some of you may have heard, a group of Cambridge Action Network activists are in Calais this week, where at any one time around 200 migrants are living on the streets. With the help of Calais Migrant Solidarity and the No Borders movement here we are running a kitchen as a practical form of solidarity with the migrant communities of Calais. Migrants in Calais experience not only grim living conditions, but relentless and brutal oppression by the French and UK states. To find out more about the situation here, and what some really inspiring activists are doing to act in solidarity with migrants, visit the Calais Migrant Solidarity website.
There is a food distribution centre here where many of the migrants normally get food. They run lunch and dinner on most days. Surrounded by metal fencing that gives the impresssion of being caged in the distribution centre could be mistaken for a prison, the migrants have to line up to receive the food and there are no tables or chairs. Two charities take it in turns to provide meals. However, they do not serve food every day, and they don’t reach all of the different migrant communities in Calais.
Last night we served our first meal as the Cambridge kitchen collective in Calais. We were taken to a patch of woods 45 minutes drive outside of Calais where roughly thirty migrants-mostly from Afghanistan- are living. So far outside of Calais, few of the charities who usually serve food to migrant communities reach them. The need for secrecy also increases their isolation, because they are hesitant to reveal the location of their camp – known as a “jungle” – to outsiders.
As we pulled down a muddy lane between a field and the woods, we were welcomed by the migrants who lived in the jungle. They showed us the way into the woods that they had made in their home- tarpaulins stretched over frames made out of branches created dry spaces for eating, talking, a mosque, and several sleeping spaces. Despite the thick mud on the ground, everything was tidy and homely.
We had spent the afternoon cooking a mushroom, cauliflower and chickpea curry, rice, and red lentil daal (which the Afghan migrants we ate with said tasted just like Pakistani lentils- we assumed that was a compliment). The food was served from the makeshift mosque, and we ate together round the fire. The community there – almost all young men – was extremely hospitable. We were promised that after the food there would be singing and dancing, and after a few minutes of teasing each other to see who would start off the singing, they launched into a series of songs accompanied by clapping and drumming on water butts. Some of the songs were traditional Pashtun songs, and others were songs about making the crossing to England. As the evening passed by, the rain came down harder and it became windy, but the atmosphere remained vibrant and warm.
Sat around the fire, a man from Afghanistan told us of his journey. He told us that because of the violence and dire economic situation back home, his family had sent him to Europe in the hope that he would find a better life. He gestured at his surroundings and smiled sadly as he said “but look at how shitty my life is now”. He had been through Italy but left because he could not find work there and wanted to travel to England where he had heard there was work. Another man, from Iran, told us how he had left beacuse he had been burnt, intimidated and put in prison by the state for refusing to join the army, because to join the army would mean fighting his own community.
I have heard many stories like this before, but found it so upsetting to meet these people who had come to be here only because of where they had been born. It made it so clear to me that the systems of asylum and the UK’s supposed commitment to human rights did not apply to the people who need it the most. It seemed like most of the people we met came from areas of the world where UK military, political and economic involvement had a devastating effect on people’s lives- yet the UK does everything it can to stop these people from crossing over the Channel. Because of UK law, crossing illegally into England is the only way to make an asylum claim for the vast majority of asylum seekers. Many of the people we spoke to had been in the UK before, they knew how hard it would be for them there, and yet trying to make the crossing was still their best option.
Each day we are here we discover another hundred lessons that we need to learn, and stories that we want to hear. Being here, in practical solidarity with the migrant communities struggling against state violence, racism and economic oppression, is an incredibly powerful experience. Keep tuned into this blog to get updates about what the rest of our week is like, and come to the next meeting of Cambridge Action Network to hear more and get involved in future projects. The Calais Migrant Solidarity group also welcomes activists year-round to come and help with work in Calais- check out their website to find out more.