Field Note #008: First Impressions from the Ground (Part I)

Aerial view of distribution site. Photo courtesy of Mobile Refugee Support, 2021.

I'm very quickly approaching three weeks of volunteering full-time with Mobile Refugee Support in northern France. My experience so far has confirmed much of what I had intuited from my research before I arrived here, but it has also revealed many complex layers that will need unpacking. The situation at the border, which cannot be described as anything other than violence, is so visceral no amount of reading or poring through Google images, Youtube videos, and Instagram or Facebook posts can possibly capture it in full. Only through being on the ground, working full-time in the warehouse and at the distribution site, and visiting the community in the camp, have I begun to gain a deeper understanding of not only the various forces at play but also the immediacy of the situation.

Correction

Early aerial view of Jungle in Grande-Synthe. Photo courtesy of Mobile Refugee Support, 2021.

Firstly, a correction to make. It is very easy to see the condition of displacement as being the same across the entirety of the north of France. Due to the obsessive focus of the media and of academia on the situation in Calais, it is easy to take that at face value and see it as representative of the situation in other areas such as Grande-Synthe, where I'm currently working. I, too, made this mistake. But the two places could not be more different. I have previously written that in northern France, evictions by the police happen at least every two days, effectively eliminating the opportunity for any kind of settlement to form. Whilst, as far as I'm concerned, this remains true in Calais, the situation is very different in Grande-Synthe. And whilst the so-called 'Jungle' in Calais was demolished in 2016, further Jungles have been formed around Grande-Synthe and Dunkerque since. The latest iteration of the 'Jungle' and its associated distribution site where we currently work have remained relatively untouched by the police for several months now and has become quite established and developed as a result. Evictions still occur on a weekly basis, but largely do not affect the structures that have been built along the main stretch of the camp.

Distributions

Distribution on site. Sketch by author, 2021.

Mobile Refugee Support are a one of an assortment of organisations that maintain a presence on site in Grande-Synthe including: Refugee Community Kitchen, Care4Calais, Utopia56, Refugee Women's Centre, Project Play, Medecins du Monde and the French Red Cross.

Despite being an organisation of under ten volunteers, we distribute to a population of almost 500 people, with approximately 30 new arrivals each day. On site between from 2pm to 6pm every day except Sunday, we provide a range of services to the community including the distribution of essential clothing (t-shirts, underwear, jumpers, trousers, etc.), basic shelter items (blankets, tarpaulin sheets, tents in exceptional circumstances, etc.) hygiene products (soap, shampoo, shaving kits, deodorant, etc.), medical items (plasters, bandages, over-the-counter medicine, etc.) and SIM cards; as well as a phone charging facility. In the coming months, we are looking to expand our services to include the distribution of basic food packs, power-banks made from recycled laptop batteries. However, the most important part of our work is our close, personal relationship with the community, fostered over the years by the founders Jed and Charlie.

Mobile Refugee Support operates in a unique manner, requiring people to place orders with us for items they need so we can deliver them next day. This differs from most other organisations, who instead give out whatever they have regardless of whether people need them or not. Our method of working allows us gauge people's needs on a personal basis and in doing so, conserve our stock for others in need and reduce the amount of waste generated by people discarding items they do not want. The number of donations we receive on a regular basis has dropped significantly due to Brexit and we have been waiting on a new shipment from the UK for over a month. We are now extremely low on trousers and jackets, and as a result have increasingly had to say ‘no’ to people wanting these items. Meanwhile ‘tents’ are given out on a case-by-case basis with a personal assessment of need. The most difficult thing, perhaps, to reconcile with here, as a volunteer, research and designer, is the immediacy of this need for shelter, this need for an effective remedy to people’s situations. Thus far, organisations on the ground, including ourselves, have not been able to keep up with this demand. So my question becomes this, given the immediacy of the situation, how can I possibly propose an intervention that I know will take years, if not decades, to even begin to make a difference.

People

As mentioned before, apart from the distributions of essential items, perhaps the most important aspect of our work is our relationship with the community. I have been very fortunate to have had the time to speak with some of the people I’ve worked with. And although the refugee population in Dunkerque is not necessarily representative of the broader community in northern France, being mostly Kurdish (from Iraq and Iran) with a small number of Persians and Somalis, I have already begun to realise how diverse and heterogeneous ‘refugee-hood’ can be. There are families, single men, minors, all of whom have fled their homes for a plethora different reasons. Some have only recently entered Europe whereas others have spent considerable time in other European countries. For example, I have already encountered numerous people who have spent years in Germany learning the language, working, going to school and building a life before eventually being denied asylum and asked to leave. Children as young as four years old, who speak fluent German, are now here, their parents having to bear the pain of explaining why they cannot just take a plane to where they want to get to like all the other children at school. Older children, have had to take on the responsibility of translating and caring for their parents whilst in the camp. Meanwhile the durations that people stay here vary considerably as well. Some have been here for days, some for months waiting to cross the Channel successfully, others have been here for years with little to no interest in going to the UK at all.

Those who do wish to cross are hopeful. ‘Inshallah’ they say, which translates roughly to ‘God-willing’. They hope the weather will be good. They hope the people organising their travel will keep their word. They hope they will cross safely. They hope that Britain will be more welcoming than the other countries they have passed through. They hope their lives can start anew. It pains me that all I can say in response is ‘Inshallah, I hope so too’.