BITTER COLD, MISSING MOTHERS

Dunkirk, January 7th 2025

It was bitterly cold today in northern France. We spent the afternoon in the new distribution area outside Dunkirk where we joined @medecinsdumonde’s mobile team (MdM) for the 1st clinic of 2026. Here several hundred people are living outside under canvas tents, dependent on local NGO’s & services for survival.

The legal case brought against the State to demand an end to structural neglect of people on the move, taken out by MdM & 5 other associations, has been partially successful. Toilets are now provided on site, along with showers a short bus journey away, & the area generally felt calmer & better organised than in recent months.

We were also pleased to learn that cold weather shelters are now open until the middle of next week. We learnt in turn from the MdM team that a number of people they spoke to didn’t know about the shelters, while some people who have used them have been perturbed by the police presence outside.

Finding safe refuge in this border environment is always challenging. Most of the men & women who sat with us in the van while waiting to see the doctor or nurse had respiratory problems from living outside. One young woman told us she has been living there for 3 months on her own, with several failed attempts to cross the Channel. She told us that she is strong, that she has endured & survived so much on route, but that this place has depleted her.

The miniature bricks were an obvious material in this environment, so we brought them onto the table inside the psychosocial activities van. These were immediately made use of - the young woman joining the making of a sturdy building which she declared was a community centre to house all the services - doctors, showers, food, & so on. A two story house, an outside kitchen & a church were also built on the table, the harsh wind just feet away from the van’s relative comfort.

Mothers were a poignant theme - a woman travelling with siblings telling us they don’t know where their mother is; a man dedicating his drawing to his mother; the young woman making a ring for her own finger spelling out MUM.

Words by Bobby Lloyd & Miriam Usiskin.