Edge of Dunkirk 09.10.24
We arrived in Dunkirk today, aware that last weekend around 1000 people crossed the English Channel from northern France in small boats, and that 4 people, including a child, lost their lives attempting this perilous sea journey.
Amongst the large numbers of people on the move in the Dunkirk area, we witnessed men, women and children watching with their belongings from the roadside, as the eviction of their living site was carried out by police, leaving them now doubly displaced. This was close to the dusty roadside area where we worked today alongside @medecinsdumonde, the space shared with hundreds of people alongside other NGOs distributing essential tarpaulins, offering phone charging & haircutting, and serving food. As the medical team parked its vehicles, a queue quickly formed, presenting colds, flu-like symptoms, wounds, skin complaints...
Orientating ourselves in this difficult place, we began with our large World map placed on the ground, and tables from the psychosocial activities van brought outside. Then across the afternoon people inhabited the inside and outside spaces, adapting them further to meet their needs, finding some agency and autonomy, and moments of playfulness.
For example, a group of young men from Afghanistan moved one of the tables back into the van to play dominoes. Men from Ethiopia held a conversation at the map with another group from elsewhere, fascinated, wanting to hear their stories. A family from Kurdistan used the inside of the van like a family living room, four children playing. One made a bracelet, another played with cars, another with a xylophone, the fourth watched on, mother nearby.
We were moved to be back in Dunkirk after our September visit to the rescue ship @soshumanity_de, now on its next rotation in the Central Mediterranean. At the map, routes across that same sea were carefully marked out in tape - the lines taken up across Europe to the northern France coast.
Words by Bobby Lloyd, Miriam Usiskin & Johannes Maertens.
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