Logo

 

Banner Image:   Baptist-Times-banner-2000x370-
Template Mode:   Baptist Times
Icon
    Post     Tweet


Reflections from the Jungle


A sobering day in Calais leaves a Baptist minister resolved to lobby the Government to begin processing asylum applications for all those lost in a limbo of indifference in the camp

If you want your heart broken, sit in the sand of the Calais jungle (the ramshackle refugee community in the shadow of the docks, barely 30 miles from our shores) and listen to a Damascus shop keeper speak of his grief at being separated from his family and ending up here.

Then look at the pictures of two bright and beaming  girls, four and two, that he longs to hold and whose voices he can hardly bear to hear on the phone when he is able to get through to them.



Mahmoud is lost in the jungle, talking of his plans with eyes that betray the fact he's lost all hope of being anywhere but here.

Feeling the solid presence of my passport in my back pocket, I listen to this former soldier whose choice was to leave his country or join his government's war against his neighbours share his story in faltering English in the hope that telling it one more time might lead to a different outcome. Rarely have I felt so helplessly privileged.

He, like so many others, is lost in the jungle; lost in a limbo of indifference where the French authorities see them as an embarrassment and the UK government refuses to see them at all.

Everywhere you look new structures are rising, more permanent than the make-shift tents they are replacing; shops, cafes, mosques, a church, a women and children's centre (with its blunt warning: no photography, no journalists), a bicycle repair shop, a pedal driven generator for charging mobiles, all signs that even the despairing try to make a life that works for them.

I was tagging along with various concerned faith and civic leaders from the UK and had the privilege of meeting representatives of three French NGOs at the sharp end of offering support to those in the jungle. They estimate that there are some 6,000 people there but the number fluctuates as the French authorities move some out while others move in (having made the trek from southern Europe, often on foot).
 

So, I come home resolved to do the one thing that everyone we met asked of us: lobby the government to open its eyes and start processing asylum applications in or near the camp



They also estimate that 90 per cent of them are asylum seekers - fleeing war, oppression and persecution - not economic migrants. And they argue that the heightened security (UK-funded razor wire, van loads of French riot police) has played into the hands of the people smugglers - mafia as they call them - and sent the prices they charge spiralling upwards.

It was a day of tears. Listening to Mahmoud and seeing the pictures of his girls (so like my granddaughters) cut me in half. Worshipping with Ethiopian Orthodox brothers and sisters in the increasingly solid St Michael's Church was moving beyond words.

Even in the midst of this horror, God is with his people. And after worship they laid on a feast; I never cease to be amazed and humbled at the open-hearted generosity of the poorest of the earth.

So, I come home resolved to do the one thing that everyone we met asked of us: lobby the government to open its eyes and start processing asylum applications in or near the camp. Many who have made it this far have relatives in the UK - parents, spouses, siblings or children - and therefore have a good claim to having their claims upheld.

Only our indifference keeps them out. 


Thumbnail image | Radek Homola | Unsplash


The Revd Simon Jones is ministry team leader at the Baptist church, Bromley. This reflection appeared on his blog a sideways glance, and is republished with permission

Baptist Times, 04/11/2015
    Post     Tweet
A bridge of hope? The Baptist witness in Israel and Palestine
Baptists in Israel and Palestine are a unique bridge between different people and cultures in the region, writes Mark Hirst, who recently visited Baptists there. He shares this and other reflections to help fuel our prayers
Gaza: our voices do make a difference
The news is indeed dreadful, writes David Nelson - but showing solidarity does have an impact
Bruno and other friends: encounters and reflections  
Baptist minister Ivan King explains why he has written a book honouring some of the ordinary people who have welcomed him into their world as a pastor
'The Inter Faith Network is in peril - please support it'
The government is withdrawing funding from the Inter Faith Network, leading to its potential closure. Paul Weller, a member of the Baptists Together Inter Faith Working Group, is encouraging Baptists to urgently protest the decision
Look outward in Lent 
For many Lent has become a time for self-examination and for deepening one’s devotional life. But the call to Christian discipleship is to look away from oneself - so let’s experiment in new ways of sharing our faith with others this year
'Remember the call I gave you...'  
While all the speakers at Fresh Streams 2024 highlighted how we are living in a time of significant change, there was a clear message from God too, writes first-time attender Simon Evans-White
     The Baptist Times 
    Posted: 12/02/2024
    Posted: 22/12/2023
    Posted: 16/12/2023
    Posted: 19/10/2023
    Posted: 19/10/2023
    Posted: 10/10/2023
    Posted: 26/09/2023
    Posted: 23/09/2023
    Posted: 20/09/2023
    Posted: 04/09/2023
    Posted: 17/07/2023
    Posted: 23/05/2023
    Posted: 17/05/2023
    Posted: 03/05/2023