Home for a family of Afghan refugees with two young children we met in Dunkirk this afternoon. They have been here in a makeshift camp since October. A few tarpaulins, a small tent and an improvised kitchen stove. They invited us to sit on their “sofa” – a few stacked up planks which they place a thin mattress on. The police raid it every week and destroy their home, chuck it out as rubbish, and so they start making it again. The authorities want to prevent any permanent camp being established.

The father, in his mid 30s with very good English, tells us of their former lives in Afghanistan, where he worked in building and construction, and how they fled from a situation of complete lawlessness and constant danger where local mafias rule the roost. His wife – who doesn’t speak any English – looks desolate and dejected. Despite their desperate circumstances their children are energetic and look well cared for.

There are 150 or so refugees camped in similar makeshift ways here, in fields, and between trees. Conditions are less than basic. Quite a lot of rubbish is strewn about, and human faeces.

The refugees here are mainly young men in their teens, twenties and thirties, though there are also some families and at least one pregnant woman – all with impressive survival skills. It is a cold December day when we visit and, as the temperature is starting to drop further, many of the men are huddled around a generator which they are using to charge their phones. It is their only means of staying in touch with their far-away families and with the events of the world. A charity, “Mobile Refugee Support”, comes in every afternoon for a couple of hours with its generator, some who have already charged their phones start small fires to warm themselves

We have come here on a visit organised by Stand Up To Racism, working in conjunction with Care4Calais.  We get on the coach in central London at 6.30 in the morning and are moving by 7am. Our coach is full, with the largest number among us being young people, many of them students. The coach hold is also full with vital supplies based on a list provided by Care4Calais collected by the people on this visit from among their friends and local communities. A very impressive amount of money has been raised too by them.

On the way some of the participants come to the front of the coach to say why they are coming on this visit and what they have been doing. One student from Queen Mary University in the East End tells us that her parents are Afghan refugees. Others talk of raising money in their workplace, even from workmates who are not convinced about the argument for growing the number of immigrants and refugees. Their humanity wins through and they are starting to think more about the issues.

We stopped first outside a Care4Calais distribution warehouse in Calais here we were briefed by long-term volunteers and allocated roles for when we get  to Dunkirk. some will spend the afternoon litter-picking, others distributing pack of supplies sorted in the warehouse into bags. We are spending time with this particular family at their “home” before coming back to the main area of the makeshift camp and mingling and chatting to the refugees there.

We met refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Somehow they maintain their spirit, their sense of humour, and their hope.  We hope that the sleeping bags, food, and clothing that our visiting group brought will be of practical use. We arrive back in London at 10pm. It is very cold and we are thinking of the people we met and how they are coping in the night.

Congratulations to Care4Calais for all they do, and for Stand Up To Racism for partnering with them and arranging this visit. We came back determined to take up the arguments about refugees within our communities,  and to challenge the daily media assault on a set of human being whose current situation compounds the traumas they have already lived through in their young lives.  The visit will undoubtedly strengthen us in communicating the urgency of stepping up  pressure on our government to let in refugees, and enable them to use their skills and obvious resilience for their own benefit and the benefit of us all.