How charities are plugging gaping gaps in support for refugees in Calais

For thousands of displaced people in northern French coast, charities and voluntary groups are a lifeline. The absence of state support – French or British – is clear to see. As men, women and children sleep in makeshift camps, sometimes subject to freezing temperatures, the response from both governments is not to help them, but to bolster security and increase the police presence in the area in a bid to move them on.

Charities on the ground, both French and British, provide basic essentials such as clean water, food, clothing and tents - which many rely on to survive.

However, this crucial support could soon disappear. Choose Love, a celebrity-backed funder that has been providing smaller charities in northern France with financial support since 2015, has just withdrawn the bulk of this funding, citing “significant challenges” since the Covid-19 pandemic began. In 2021, the groups received a total of £600,000 from Choose Love, and they must now find alternative funds to meet this gap.

With thousands of people, including around 300 unaccompanied children, now sleeping rough on the streets and in the woods around Calais and Dunkirk, volunteers say the cuts “couldn’t have come at a worse time” given the “increasingly hardline approach” both the UK and French authorities are taking towards displaced people in northern France.

Indeed, on the French side, video footage posted on social media by Human Rights Observers, a voluntary monitoring group, just two days ago showed French police officers aggressively evicting displaced people from a makeshift camp in Calais. This is not new, but there is a sense that the bid to remove people from the area has been ramping up. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Channel, the UK Home Office has announced controversial plans as part of its new immigration bill to penalise – and even criminalise – people who arrive on British shores via small boat from northern France. The response from both sides towards people pursuing this route is not to help, but to show hostility, in a bid to deter them (even though similar tactics have not succeeded in doing so in the past).

For the past seven years, the gaping gaps in support – the provision of basic essentials such as clean water, cooking equipment and tents - have been filled by charities. Choose Love, initially named Help Refugees, came about amid a wave of sympathy during the peak refugee crisis in 2015. It won the backing of celebrities including actors Olivia Colman and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and has raised money partly by selling branded items online and in a boutique on Carnaby Street, London. The charity now works with refugees in 22 countries and has raised £35m.

But the recent funding cuts show that such charitable organisations cannot be relied on to fill the gaps in crucial humanitarian aid. Voluntary groups in northern France say they are now scraping for donations to keep vulnerable men, women and children alive during the winter months. Will this be the point that Britain and France are forced to step in, or will hostility towards migrants continue to prevail?