Dunkirk, Calais, 7-9 August
We left the UK on Wednesday morning amidst the upsurge of far right activity across the country over the previous week, including terrifying, violent attacks on hotels housing women, men & children seeking asylum, and leaving many refugee communities scared for their safety. That evening we watched reports of thousands of people coming out onto streets in towns & cities across the UK, in counter demonstrations, in huge shows of solidarity with communities under attack, including support and welcome for refugees.
We ourselves spent the past few days crossing over 3 borders from the UK to France to Belgium, spending a day in Dunkirk then onto Brussels (separate post) then finally to Calais before returning home.
We worked in 3 very different settings where people seeking a safe haven gather, having fled war and persecution in their own countries. From perspectives on the other side of the Channel, the overriding focus of people remains a search for safety and asylum and, as ever our main takeaway from this work is the phenomenal resilience, humility, patience and hope that most of the people we meet carry with them.
In Dunkirk, Wednesday, we had a busy afternoon alongside @medecinsdumonde mobile clinic where, unusually, whole families waiting to see the doctors, joined us. Two sisters from Afghanistan, where girls are denied the human right to education, tried out their spoken English, learnt in a refugee centre on the family’s long journey to the France border, their thirst for an ordinary life & chance for education somewhere safe clearly articulated.
Yesterday with @calais.exilessc in Calais, many young men, as well as parents with young children joined The Community Table. The human drive to find a safe place was touched upon in the small buildings that came & went across the afternoon, in the conversations across languages typed out on mobile phones, & in fragments of typewritten notes - My name is… I am from.. I am alone. it’s my birthday. I miss you. I love you - witnessed by us at the table.
Words by Bobby Lloyd & Miriam Usiskin.
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