Some news items grab your attention. For me it was a recent two-part exposé on the radio station LBC. They investigated a people smuggler in Dunkirk offering places on a dinghy crossing the Channel for around £7000. He claimed the passages were assisted by French authorities. In the second part, the reporter and her team confronted the smuggler in a pizza restaurant, then followed him through a shopping centre as he attempted to flee.
For me, the ‘exposé’ was remarkable for being unremarkable. Such situations are commonplace to those of us who have spent time researching or working on matters relating to asylum, migration, and the current movement of people. Last year when, to much media flurry, a few dinghies crossed the Channel around Christmas and there was an onslaught of government speeches about “security”, I could only think, “Why are you surprised?”
So many dinghy crossings have been attempted in the Mediterranean over recent years and by comparison, the distance involved crossing the Channel is negligible. Of course Channel crossings would be tried.
The missing part of the LBC story is what is truly shocking and should be told. In the last year a sports hall in Dunkirk became an indoor shelter for refugees in northern France. When I was last there leading our pilot Encounter: Calais project, we heard that many people had been allowed into the gym due to the cold weather. It remained open, until around 1000 people were sheltering there or near-by. This was done (against the trend of the Macron government) with the support of Damien Carême, the Mayor of Grandé-Synthe. However, Mr Carême’s election as an MEP appears to have left a vacuum in the area, and so in recent weeks there has been a situation similar to the demolition of ‘the jungle’ in Calais in 2016.
As after the ‘jungle’ demolition, there have been mass evictions by bus to reception centres across France. A simultaneous operation targeted settlements in Calais. Those of us who witnessed the 2016 aftermath believe the results will be the same: support infrastructure destroyed, families broken up; the most vulnerable going missing - but business as usual for the politicians.
These events happened around the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. My heart is sore, because in his letter for this World Day, Pope Francis reminded the Church that it is not just about migrants, but ourselves: ‘…that the presence of migrants invites us to rediscover the essentials of our Christian existence, and our humanity that we risk losing in prosperous societies’.
Borders and security will be increasingly politicised in the coming months, and more lives will be risked and doubtless lost in the English Channel. I feel we are neglecting our responsibility to those who suffer as a result of policies conducted in our name.
One of the videos I use when delivering our ‘Take a walk in their shoes’ workshop is a poem, read over footage of the old Calais ‘jungle’. There is a line that hits me every time:
“So people won’t you listen? Governments won’t you hear? There’s a humanitarian crisis, and it’s happening far too near.”
Both parts of the original LBC report into smuggling can be found at