Life In Another Town's video: Calais Jungle interview with a Syrian man who wants to seek asylum in England August 2015

In August 2015, I spent a week or so in the Calais Jungle volunteering with a local French charity called Auberge des Migrants. During some down time, I wandered around the camp chatting to people. In this video, I talked with a Syrian man who fled Daesh (ISIS). He explains why he wants to go to the UK, and he speaks about the many attempts he has made to get to the UK, only to be thwarted by the police. The conditions in the camp were awful. The French authorities resisted putting in utilities; they were worried that making the place better would only serve to pull migrants to the camp. At this point there were probably only a couple of thousand people staying in the camp. Over the next few months, the Jungle population grew reportedly to almost 10,000 people. Six years later, Calais is still an embarkation point for men, women and children who hope to get across the Channel, seeking safe refuge in the UK. In the years since 2015, the UK and French governments have spent many millions of pounds and euros tightening port and tunnel security to stop migrants making their way to England. Now, international organised crime gangs are trafficking migrants across the Channel in ramshackle and dangerous inflatable dinghies. In 2020, the Guardian newspaper reported that, since 1999, almost 300 men, women and children, have died trying to cross the channel to seek refuge in the UK. The JWCI explains "For almost all people fleeing desperate circumstances, hoping to reunite with family members in the UK or seeking security and a better life in the UK, there is simply no application form that exists and no process that can facilitate a safe and legal journey. The Home Office expects people to physically reach the UK before an asylum application can be lodged." Today, I happened to come across this old video on my laptop. I remember that I didn't share it online at the time because I had no way of blurring faces. Six year later, the issue is still relevant. The public debate continues. I've removed the frames which clearly showed identifiable faces. In 2021, the fighting in Syria has abated, Daesh is beaten but Assad is still in power. Yet men, women and children continue to flee other countries stricken by war and internal strife, including Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Ethiopia.