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Care4Calais

@Care4Calais

May 16

Today on a beach in the south coast, I met a man whose bravery tore my heart. We were welcoming a group of refugees who had been brought in by lifeboat, and I got talking to a man from Iran. He seemed fine, standing with his friend, smiling and chatting despite his long journey.

But then he told me how grateful he was to the lifeboat men. He tried to explain how good they had been, and to tell me about being in the boat — and then suddenly he fell quiet, unable to speak for a moment.

He crouched down and covered his face.

When his friend saw him, he covered his face too; another man standing nearby came over to hug him. They soon recovered, and continued acting with great dignity. Clearly pity was the last thing these men wanted; they sought only safety and the chance to rebuild their lives.

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Care4Calais

@Care4Calais

May 8

Why are there more male than female refugees in northern France? A 🧵

Firstly, in the countries where they are from, such as Sudan, young men may be killed to stop them rebelling against the government or used as child soldiers.

In Afghanistan, young men are often primary targets for recruitment by radical groups like ISIS and the Taliban, and in Eritrea they can be conscripted for what is effectively a life sentence. For these reasons, boys as young as 13 have to run away from homes and families.

In Calais we see more women and children from countries such as Syria or Iran, but they are prioritised for social housing and not as often seen on the street.
Moreover, the journeys to Calais are incredibly harsh. From Africa they might cross the Sahara which takes many lives…

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Care4Calais

@Care4Calais

May 6

Last month Sofia, nine years old, survived a suspected cluster bomb attack in the besieged city of Mykolaiv, which lodged shrapnel the size of a sugar cube in her brain.

Fragments from the blast shattered her skull, forcing a piece of hot metal around half an inch thick through

her forehead. The metal passed through the centre of her brain, and came to rest at the nape of her neck.

“It is a kind of miracle that she survived at all,” said Dr Mikhail Lovga, chief of the paediatric neurosurgery department at Mykolaiv hospital, who is treating her.

Sofia is a different child from the nine year old who just two months ago was regularly posting videos of her dancing on TikTok, and singing pop songs into her smartphone. Now she can barely walk, and struggles to compose her thoughts.

In the first weeks of the war, Sofia’s

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Care4Calais

@Care4Calais

Apr 14

Yesterday 116 refugees in three three boats came ashore at Dungeness. We understand that that everyone on the first two boats was from Syria, and the people in the the third were from Kurdistan and Afghanistan. There were a lot of women and children on the first two boats...

including some children who were unaccompanied. Many people looked cold and exhausted, and some were upset and confused - some much that it tore at your heart to see them.

There was one family with a small boy and a lady who was just crying uncontrollably. She was obviously...

in shock, and kept saying how awful the crossing had been. I think she had a vitamin deficiency, and her little boy looked like he was in shock as well.

We gave her a complete change of clothing, and by the time she had to leave, she said she was a lot better.

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Care4Calais

@Care4Calais

Apr 14

In a speech today, Boris Johnson willrefer to the deaths of 27 refugees in the English Channel to justify new measures that will lead to many more refugee deaths.

But Boris Johnson’s government is responsible for those deaths.

Those people would not have been risking their lives in the first place had he introduced a system that allowed them apply for asylum in the UK.

But instead, Johnson has announced refugees arriving in the UK will now be put on a plane to Rwanda where they will be processed.

It is utterly inhumane. The newly-arrived refugees have escaped the worst things in the world, and then risked their lives to get here. Many are traumatised. To herd these men, women and children onto planes for a long flight to new, strange country is criminal.

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Care4Calais

@Care4Calais

Mar 7

Last night I was eating dinner with friends when I noticed that one of them, Jess, was quietly crying as she ate.
I asked her what was wrong. “”I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t want to spoil the dinner by saying anything.

But at the distribution today, I met some guys who were really hungry, and didn’t have any food.”
“Afterwards I took some to them.”
“They were in the most terrible situation. It was awful and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
I knew we had to do something.

We quickly finished eating, and three of us went back to the warehouse, grabbed some tents and sleeping bags, and drove to these refugees.
Their situation was horrific. There were eight - all Iranian men - huddled under a bridge, with a two-man tent and two blankets between them.

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