Since I returned from my volunteering with Care 4 Calais, I’ve been struggling to read the news reports and articles that surround the topic of migration into the UK. On top of this, I’ve been asked several uncomfortable questions by people that may not be fully informed on the actual situation facing migrants in Calais. The most frustrating aspect of the coverage surrounding the journeys that migrants make across the channel is the idea that many people are coming simply because they want to earn more money and take advantage of the benefits living in the UK brings.

I was asked whether the people I met in Calais were ‘real migrants’ or whether they are coming as part of the migration ‘invasion’. I do believe that this question comes directly from the coverage from far-right groups in the media. Yes, the people I met were ‘real’ migrants, the simple matter of the fact is that no person would be risking their lives to this extent simply to earn more money. I heard horrific stories of people being wrongfully imprisoned in Libya, leaving home at 13 years old to escape war, and even seeing a man who had bullet wounds in the back of his head after being shot by Libyan border police.
A further question that is asked frequently in the media is “why do they have to come to the UK, France is already a safe country, why can’t they stay there!?”. This one is more understandable as France is a well-developed, modern country in western Europe, however the lack of context given to this situation in the media does leave people questioning why people do not stay in France, Italy, or Germany. The simple answer is that the majority of the people that I met on site in Calais and Dunkirk either spoke very good English already or had family members that were living in England. A vulnerable teenager is far more likely to want to live in a country where they have family and where they can speak the language. Furthermore, a policy change in Germany has seen many people have their asylum claims overturned, even after they have been living there for years, leaving many people without homes, and feeling unwelcome even in these western European countries.

Now, the most troubling aspect of the discourse around migration into the UK is vitriol that has been whipped up by the far right, claiming that the UK is overrun and already taking in too many migrants. This argument has been supported by the Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson who has been quoted as saying refugees should “fuck off back to France” (The Independent, 2023) and that volunteers for refugee charities are “just as bad as people smugglers” (The Telegraph, 2023). This is extremely troubling as he is in a place of authority and has been refusing to apologize for these comments. The idea that the UK is already accepting too many refugees is simply untrue, with seven other countries from Europe accepting more refugees as of 2021 (The Independent, 2023), with France accepting approximately three times the amount of people, and fifteen European countries accepting more asylum claims per 10,000 people (The Independent, 2023). We do have space for these people, and we should be more welcoming these people that have left their whole lives behind in order to find a better life in the UK and find somewhere where they feel safe.

Simply searching ‘Care 4 Calais’ on Twitter shows endless tweets of racist, sexist, and xenophobic hate directed at both the refugees and the volunteers, this has been hard to see after my experience, with people throwing baseless accusations that volunteers provide people routes for crossings, giving them legal advice for asylum claims, and that these people are not escaping danger. All of these claims are false, volunteers simply provide humanitarian aid in the shape of food, water and clothing to people who are the most vulnerable in our society.

As members of the public who do not have the access to volunteering with refugee charities full time, and therefore cannot see the situation firsthand, we must do more to ensure that we do not buy into the far right hate speech directed at asylum seekers. These people need our help, and we should not be turning our backs on them.