Vital supplies for refugees at the migrant camp known as the Calais Jungle have been flooding in over the weekend, following an appeal for aid on Facebook.
Tents and sleeping bags, warm clothes, shoes, cooking equipment and games have all been dropped off at Tesco’s Marlborough Business Park store, which is acting as a collection point for donations.
A local appeal – Marlborough Action for Refugees – was launched on the Facebook group Marlborough Notice Board by Kaz Smith last Thursday. By Friday, Tesco had volunteered to act as a collection point, and over the weekend hundreds of items were donated, including twenty or thirty tents.
“The response from Marlborough people has been amazing,” said Kaz, who said that shocking images of the three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, who was drowned off the Turkish coast, had “stirred people into action”.
“There was a feeling that we had to address a very immediate need. To wait for the government to act would be too late.
“These donations will make a very real difference to people in desperate need,” said Kaz. “Please keep doing it.”
The donations will be handed to Swindon to Calais Solidarity (www.facebook.com/Swindontocalais) who are working with charities in northern France to ensure that the aid gets to the people who need it most.
Marlborough Action for Refugees is also hoping to make contact with charities sending aid to the Greek island of Kos – the first port of call for many refugees escaping the horrors of war and hoping to start a new life in Europe.
The charities are in desperate need of trainers, hiking boots and wellies, tents, jackets, travelling bags, socks, candles, belts, tracksuit bottoms, blankets and jeans.
They also need unwanted smartphones with SIM cards, sleeping bags, soap and shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, plastic bags, woolly hats, pants, and pots and pans.
The Calais Jungle is the nickname given to a series of camps in the vicinity of the French port, where migrants live while they attempt to enter the United Kingdom by stowing away on lorries, ferries, cars, or trains travelling through the Port of Calais or the Eurotunnel Calais Terminal.
The migrants are a mix of refugees, asylum seekers, and economic migrants from Syria, Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and other trouble spots.
It is estimated that 4,000 migrants are currently camped around Calais, with 100 to 150 new migrants arriving every day.
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