During evictions, police seize tents, blankets, life jackets, clothes and more. This often includes medication, phones, and documentation - essentials needed to survive and claim asylum. There is absolutely no regard for the human rights or dignity of the people living in these camps.
Most people are unaware that these disruptive, violent, and immoral police operations are funded by the UK government. In my time here, I have witnessed the reality of policies that systematically endanger people seeking safety.
I’ve spent the past few months volunteering with Human Rights Observers in Calais, an organisation that monitors and documents police violence and the evictions of people living in informal camps. In Calais, these evictions happen every 48 hours; in Dunkirk, roughly once a week.
What has been most disturbing to me is the detachment of the police. I have seen officers joking, playing football, and even urinating where people live. At the end of an eviction, they shake hands as if to congratulate each-other on a job well done. What they choose not to see is the aftermath. It is easy to think a tent is just a tent. But for people on the move, these belongings represent the last fragments of stability.
One morning, I spoke to four young guys just after their site had been evicted. The police had arrived early and taken their tents with all their belongings still inside.
“My whole life was in that tent,” one of them said to me.
They then faced the precarious situation of finding a place to sleep that night before they could even consider the items they had lost. That evening, as it rained heavily outside my kitchen window, I wondered what those four guys were doing. It made no sense that because of where we were born, that I should be warm at home, while they were outside in the rain after having had their belongings forcefully stolen by the state.
The people in these forests do not want to ‘sponge off benefits’. They want to work, pay their own rent and mortgages, and take the ferry or train like everyone else. They just want to live in peace and dignity.
Yet for the French and UK governments, this is not an option. Instead, they implement policies that compound the misery of people fleeing conflict. These stories are rarely shown in the media, but they matter.
Our partners, like Human Rights Observers in Calais, remain in the field every day to support people on the move and to try to counter the harmful policies of hostile states.
Join us on Instagram to learn more about our partners and the impact of their work. Learn more. Act now 🧡
