A Visit From the Department of Calais
The Refugee Youth Service team was very happy to welcome visitors from the Department of Calais for the first time.
On Tuesday, the 27th of April the team was accompanied by Fanny Bertrand and Céline Coche who are in charge of the Service Départemental d'accueil des mineurs non-accompagnés in Pas-de-Calais, who came to spend the day with our team in the field, and get insights into our work.
The schedule for the visit allowed our guests to become familiar with our objectives and our approach to support work. We spent the day at different living sites in Calais where we usually meet and check up on the children we support, and our team had the chance to show how our outreach and activities programme run in practice.
The importance of our focus on unaccompanied children’s needs and wellbeing was reiterated by our guests, and we were happy to see that the impact our work has on the children we meet was felt by both visitors as well.
Additionally, during the day we were able to have great discussions on some of the challenging aspects of our work which opened up for a promising discussion on the future of support work in Calais.
The visit had a very positive outcome and allowed us to share the knowledge we have gained after years of working with unaccompanied children in Calais with the department members, and we look forward to further collaboration with the department in order to improve social services for unaccompanied minors in Calais.
Reflections on My Time in Calais
In September 2020, I joined Refugee Youth Service as the Operations Officer. My time, divided between office tasks and field activities, gave me the chance to better understand how intertwined the outreach, the advocacy and the administrative aspects of the work are.
While all three play an equal part within the project, reaching out to the displaced communities in Calais is the foundation for it all. By setting up activities for everyone to enjoy or simply talking with people, the team can meet and help unaccompanied children on the move. But this simple act of exchange runs far deeper. It allows people to be treated as humans when they have been denied this so many times during their journey to and across Europe.
It seems trivial, sitting by a fire for a few minutes and trying to talk with people. But sometimes, it can mean the world. At the beginning, I fought against their readiness to give up a seat, feeling they should be the ones resting as much as possible. I politely declined the food and drinks they often tried to give me, thinking of how limited their access to such basic things were in Calais. But as time went on, I recognised these actions for what they were: acts of kindness between strangers.
Reflecting on my time in Calais, I now realise that such simple acts could be as many small opportunities to build a relationship as equals. Chances to be the hosts, welcoming you into their space rather than the recipients of a service. From the very reason they left their countries to how and where they cross borders, refugees often have little control over their lives. Smugglers, police forces and laws in place dictate so much of what they can do.
This lack of agency is nowhere as clear as it is in Calais. The places where they live are regularly raided by the police. Their tents and the few belongings they have are taken from them. Access to even the most basic rights such as hygiene and water depends on state-mandated associations and since September, a decree has even prevented food distribution in some parts of town - essentially confining them to certain areas around Calais.
Faced with such violence, they nonetheless continue to find new ways of creating a sense of home and community. I was always in awe of their ingenuity when it came to making the most of their environment. Conjuring up traditional meals with very little materials, turning scraps of metal into utensils to cook with.
During these 6 months with RYS, I have witnessed such strength and resilience from people who had lost so much. I found their tenacity and resourcefulness inspiring. They also serve as a constant reminder to the powers that be: we exist, you cannot erase us.
Appel a Partenariat!
Nous avons une annonce unique à vous communiquer!
Le RYS et Help Refugees recherchent un/des partenaires avec une vision sur le long terme et prêt.s à contribuer à la Protection des enfants en errance et plus particulièrement l’assistance auprès des mineures isolée.s étrangers en France afin de faire respecter leurs droits.
Après cinq années passées à Calais, l’association RYS est convaincue que pour réaliser ce travail vital pour de nombreux jeunes, un ancrage local et des connaissances approfondies du système de protection de l’enfance français sont nécessaires pour faciliter la transformation des politiques publiques dans l’intérêt supérieur des enfants. C’est pour que ces changements structurels puissent voir le jour que le RYS souhaite confier le projet à une organisation partenaire française.
Date limite de soumission des candidatures (1er tour) 30 novembre 2020, 19h00 (heure de Paris)
Si vous êtes intéressé et pour en savoir plus:https://www.coordinationsud.org/appel-offre/protection-de-lenfance-mineur-e-s-isole-e-s-non-pris-en-charge-hauts-de-france/
My volunteering experience in Calais
Last September, I decided to volunteer for Refugee Youth Service in Calais. As Outreach Support, my role involved:
- Informing displaced unaccompanied minors of their rights and opportunities as children in France.
- Facilitating their access to available state services (e.g. shelter) and other NGOs’ services (e.g. clothes or phone credit).
- Helping document violations of children’s rights in Calais.
- Organising educational and playful activities.
Every day, the RYS team visits the different living sites across Calais in order to meet, inform and support displaced unaccompanied minors. For each visit, the RYS team brings a set of activities for the children to engage with such as boardgames, sport equipment, drawing material, music, or educational resources. In a context of survival and emergency such as Calais, games might often seem futile. Yet, in their normality and spontaneity, these activities can often bring respite from high levels of stress.
A quick football game, an intense Molkki competition, an improvised boxing training, a focused drawing session or a famous song are often mood changers that momentarily challenge the hostility and insecurity these children face every day. Most importantly, these fun and relaxed activities enable us to establish relationships of trust with the children we meet and therefore to better support them in their choices at this stage of their journey.
One of the highlights of my volunteering experience at RYS has been the implementation of language learning sessions. At first, a windy parking area or a muddy roundabout felt far from ideal to conduct language learning activities. However, as we started to offer French and English educational resources, the need for it became clear as well as people’s eagerness to learn. Learning a new language is longing to understand and to be understood. In an environment that constantly belittles you and questions your worth, it is also about the respect and dignity that come with it and the idea that self-improvement is still possible and meaningful.
One of the things I have enjoyed the most about our activities programme is that it enables us to take the time to be with and speak to the children. Whether it is having a conversation about our favourite food, sharing some tea, teaching new words or helping someone with his phone, stopping and taking the time to listen is a mundane but valuable act of care. Because, in Calais, it is ultimately in the ordinary that European politics of exclusion and criminalisation are the most felt – in the everyday indifference, insecurity, queues to get food or a shower, police evictions, waiting games, lack of information or struggles to find warmth - that produce an empty and perpetual temporariness in which people are controlled but also abandoned.
As coronavirus continues to spread and Brexit threatens to undermine the rights of displaced unaccompanied minors in Calais, humanitarian organisations relentlessly continue to support these stranded populations – but this often remains a sticking plaster. More humane, empathetic, and efficient governmental strategies are needed to uphold displaced people’s fundamental rights.
The power of play: how games help unaccompanied children
Displacement caused by war or persecution can have a devastating effect on a child’s development and life in general. The long-lasting negative consequences can affect children’s health, social skills and future.
Displaced unaccompanied children in northern France come from countries torn by conflict, war or other disasters. These children have been, and continue to be, deprived of their right to education and play. Moreover, vulnerable children in Calais continue to experience re-traumatisation from the ongoing evictions, police violence and unsanitary living conditions in the informal settlements they live in.
With each visit to these makeshift camps our team at RYS seeks to create a safer space for these children and bring a glimpse of normality to their lives through play-based and learning activities. RYS believes that play is fundamental for children’s healthy development, and learning can be achieved through such projects. Particularly now, with the upcoming winter exacerbated by COVID-19 and the tight administrative measures, an hour of cricket or a lesson in French could not only help children cope better with their high levels of stress but it can also provide hope for a path forward.
Multiple studies show the importance of play for refugee children in reducing anxiety levels as well as mitigating the detrimental, long-term effects of the trauma they carry or continue to endure. A clinical report, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, finds that play is an important part of children's growth, assisting in cognition, memory and social skills. In 2019, UNICEF published a report, highlighting the importance of sporting activities for developing children’s creativity, inventiveness and curiosity. It also finds that sport can build children’s self-esteem, improve physical health and contribute to their overall well-being. For millions of children, however, the chance to learn through sport and play is unavailable in their early development. Many children continue to form their earliest memories from witnessing violence, destruction and incomprehensible discrimination. In addition, with the COVID-19 crisis, the threat to refugee children’s education and development reaches alarming levels. In September 2020, UNHCR published a report warning that without collective and immediate action “we risk a lost generation of refugee children deprived of their education”.
Taking all that into account, RYS tries to organise and tailor activities, which promote learning through play. Our popular sporting matches, such as football and cricket, have proven to bring lone children together and help them form friendships with one another. Sport as a vehicle for inclusion and support is evident in every sporting outreach session that RYS undertakes. In November 2020, RYS enhanced its language activities for French and English and began delivering consistent language lessons to the children in the informal camps. With this activity, RYS is focused on motivating learning, bringing new skills and giving hope to these vulnerable children who are otherwise deprived of their right to childhood play and education.
RYS continues to update its varied programme of activities and study curriculums centered around well-being, social development and inclusion. The goal is to foster feelings of belonging but also knowledge and inspiration. We see that learning and developing through play ignites a spark for knowledge in the midst of the living chaos these children survive in and gives them hope. However, none of these activities can fully substitute for formal education and allowing easier access to such is essential for these children’s healthy growth.
Today, especially with the COVID-19 crisis, we must step up for the most vulnerable and provide playful and learning experiences that they need to build a safer future.
f you would like to support our play-based and learning activities, you can purchase an item that will help us continue and further develop our action on the ground. Please click here to see the full list of items, which we currently need:https://www.listy.fr/listes/refugee-youth-service
Author: Petya Tsekova
References
The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children. Retrieved from:https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/3/e20182058
Getting Into the Game: Understanding the Evidence for Child-Focused Sport for Development. Retrieved from:https://www.unicef-irc.org/getting-into-the-game
UNHCR Report: Coronavirus a Dire Threat to Refugee Education. Retrieved from:https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2020/9/5f4cc3064/unhcr-report-coronavirus-dire-threat-refugee-education-half-worlds-refugee.html
Calais: Défenseur des Droits' Visit in September 2020
Displaced unaccompanied children in Calais are faced with multiple crises including poor living conditions in makeshift camps, daily or weekly evictions, health hazards, insufficient access to vital services and police violence. It is because of this protracted crisis and the increased evictions happening this summer that Refugee Youth Service (RYS), alongside other associations on the ground, submitted a referral to Claire Hédon, the défenseure des droits (DDD)* in France. The document outlines the increasingly alarming situation faced by unaccompanied children in Calais, which prompted a two-day visit and assessment of the situation from the DDD.
On 22 September 2020, Refugee Youth Service welcomed Claire Hédon, défenseure des droits, who was joined by a team of seven experts specialising in child protection, law enforcement deontology and Migration Law. The RYS team was represented by our social worker and cultural mediator.
For the first day’s visit, RYS had scheduled visits to 3 makeshift camps and areas in Calais where the displaced and refugee populations live. Other organisations present during the sites’ visit were representatives from Utopia 56 and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - whose presence was very important in supporting with Arabic language interpreting.
Throughout the day, we shared our experience and knowledge about the changes that we have noticed following the different evictions taking place over the summer and their impact on people's movement and human rights. We also briefed the visiting team on the precarious living conditions within the camps and the long distances that displaced people had to make to access vital services. We mentioned that the location of the sites keeps changing due to the evictions which in addition complicates food distribution and protection activities. The DDD showed specific interest in knowing the consequences faced by unaccompanied children.
Consequently, the DDD managed to speak to a child currently living in one of the sites who shared his difficult experience with the French asylum system since his arrival in France. He also showed the precarious and unsanitary living conditions in the informal settlement where he currently resided.
Claire Hédon and her team were also able to speak to a small group of people living in another makeshift camp. People talked about their experience with the reoccurring police violence and evictions they faced. The DDD also spoke to families with children whose asylum requests were denied. She was also let inside makeshift spaces to assess the overall situation, including the water distribution points, showers and toilet facilities.
In the afternoon, the DDD and her team joined other** non-governmental organisations who were gathered at the Secours Catholique office in Calais. During this meeting, the RYS social worker presented as thoroughly as possible information familiarising the DDD and her team with the different informal settlements in Calais. Other organisations also discussed their work and observations within the sites.
Afterwards, the DDD continued with the sites’ visits but this time her team was split into two groups in order to facilitate more interactions with the children and gain better understanding of the situation they are continuously facing. The DDD, herself, joined the RYS’ team who briefed her on the lack of protection mechanisms for unaccompanied children, specifically in regards to human trafficking, the absence of mechanisms to help victims of such and the lack of answer from authorities. Our cultural mediator also highlighted the problem of sexual exploitation happening in the camps and the dangers of this for vulnerable children. Another problem that was discussed with the DDD was the health hazard facing children including the dangers of other diseases in addition to COVID-19 such as tuberculosis, which exists in these camps.
During the last site visit, the DDD also witnessed first hand the important role that RYS played in supporting vulnerable children as well as the importance of building relationships and trust between RYS and the unaccompanied children especially for their access to the child protection system in France.
After the day was over, the DDD expressed her interest in learning more on how the CRS police treat displaced people and refugees. She also promised to keep up-to-date with the State Council’s decision regarding the ban on food distribution in certain areas in Calais;
Following their two-day visit to Calais, the DDD developed a situation analysis report on the living conditions for displaced people and unaccompanied children with specific recommendations, which can be found in detail here.
The report highlights the degrading living conditions and asks the State for an urgent solution to this worrisome and frequently neglected crisis.
In the situation analysis report, the DDD expresses her concern particularly regarding women and children who are especially vulnerable to becoming victims of sexual exploitation and violence. Among the key recommendations were opening an easily accessible day centre for the unaccompanied children, which is imperative to respecting their rights, ensuring their safety as well as living up to France’s commitment to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. In relation to the process of reuniting unaccompanied children with their relatives in the United Kingdom, the DDD reiterates the importance of having an efficient legal process in order to prevent children from taking life-endangering journeys across the Channel by small boats. The DDD urges the authorities to work on opening legal and safer routes, as well as to treat people on the move with the respect and dignity that they deserve.
* Défenseur des Droit (DDD) or the “Rights Defender” is an independent administrative authority in France, appointed by the president of the republic. The DDD is responsible for defending the rights of citizens not only vis-a-vis as an Ombudsman but also has specific role in terms of promoting human rights, children’s rights, fight against discrimination and respect for ethics in security activities.
** Other associations present during this meeting included representatives from Secours Catholique, Utopia 56, Human Rights Observers, L’Auberge des Migrants, Calais Food Collective, la Cabane Juridique, Salam, Collective Aid, Amnesty International France, the French Red Cross, Médecins du Monde and Help Refugees.
Author: Refugee Youth Service