Convoy to Calais

Today I’m joining the Convoy to Calais to raise awareness of, and deliver goods to, the refugee camps.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

Last I heard the French government was planning to block is entering the country, so it’s more of a Day Trip to Dover atm idk

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

We caught an earlier ferry, gonna catch the #ConvoytoCalais in France.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

"They've closed Dover," I said. "And this guy's tweeted that he and his daughter are being held by the cops in Calais." The ferry shuddered a bit and I put down my bad coffee. I refreshed Twitter.
"Do you think they'll stop us when we get off the ferry?"
"I don't know."

I tried to picture what I would say to a French cop. Je vais sur un vin croisière. Désolé, je ne parle pas très bien français. 

"I'm gonna tweet the organiser - wait, no, do you reckon the cops'll be watching the hashtag? I'll use this other account. Wait, how tech savvy are cops? I mean if they visited the website and did a whois lookup?"
"If you were a cop, how tech savvy would you be?"
"Okay. So we can't tweet. Okay."

So the French and UK police teamed up to stop the #ConvoyToCalais by stopping protesters at the docks.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

The police were checking passports against a list of those registered for the convoy and turning people back.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

“Free travel within the EU.” But we’d stuffed that but up and none of our names were on the list.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

The trip was booked under my sister-in-law's name. She couldn't make it, last minute. They were checking the lead traveller's names, not number plates.

I was following the hashtag like, “uh guys the convoy’s not coming I think it’s just us that made it across??”

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

I heard the goods we donated got through. So that's good. Everything had been dropped off in advance at central locations.

So we bought some wine and thought about what to do. I didn’t want to tweet we were in France in case the cops were on the hashtag.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

But I managed to get hold of @care4calais on the PHONE and anyway we went out there. A short drive in the beautiful countryside.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

And there was amazing art. And so many amazing people. pic.twitter.com/gzN5cJri1D

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

We put our thumbprints on a map of the world, showing where we'd come from, how far we'd travelled to show we cared.

And there was a roundtable with some people from the camps. They said thanks, and they have hope and also please keep helping.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

And that actions like the Convoy help them feel SEEN and hey that humanity’s important.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

One of the refugees said, they didn't want any journalists writing any more stories. They wanted things to change. They wanted the chance at having a life.

This was the view. pic.twitter.com/iNDEObOwFU

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

Another refugee said, "I'm 22. The things I've seen in the past two years in Europe... the camp is so much better than a war zone."

We didn’t go to the camps but we drove past them on the way back. pic.twitter.com/u1LYP9ad5F

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

The camp was huge. It went on and on. They call it the Jungle.

The camp at Calais is 95% men. The women and children are at Dunkirk or Greece or ????? I didn’t know that.

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

Then we got to go home to our homes and families/cats. 7,000 people are sleeping in the Jungle tonight. The end. pic.twitter.com/n2oyJj9oOD

— RayRayRayner (@RachelRayner) June 18, 2016

About the Jungle.
About the Convoy to Calais.
About the blockade at Dover.
Read more about, or donate to Care4Calais.

Categories: Issues