This article is part of an ongoing series exploring the response to the global refugee crisis by The Episcopal Church and its ecumenical and interfaith partners. Other articles in the series are available here.
[Episcopal News Service] When Regan du Closel visited Calais’ infamous “Jungle” in October, she was deeply disturbed by the conditions in the makeshift refugee camp. Then as she learned more about the refugees – some of whom routinely risked their lives in the hope of one day reaching the U.K. – it was clear that to them this temporary shelter, however miserable, was better than most of the alternatives.
Most of all, Closel was struck by their strength and dignity as survivors.
So when news broke that the French authorities had begun dismantling parts of the camp in early March, and that many of the Jungle’s 6,000 refugees would be evicted, Closel knew she needed to respond.
“The partial closing of the Jungle … is a source of tension, anguish, and misunderstanding to many of the refugees,” said Closel, a lay member at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, where she and fellow parishioner Thomas Girty have organized a compassionate and material response to the needs of refugees arriving in France after fleeing persecution and civil war in their home countries.
To find out exactly what is happening and what is needed the most, Closel stays in regular contact with Christian Hogard, a lifelong resident in the Calais area who has made it his vocation to support refugees since 1999 when a Red Cross reception center opened at the Port of Calais mainly to house and process those escaping conflict in the Balkan countries of Eastern Europe.
“By working with Christian, who works directly with the central clearing house on the ground up there, we had a pretty good chance of targeting where the need is greatest. [He] is a man of boundless energy, organization and imperturbable courage,” said Closel.
As the shacks and tents in the Jungle are razed, some 1,500 people are being moved into a neighboring government camp of shipping containers, Closel explained. Another 1,500 are being moved by bus 25 miles down the Channel coast to a new camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk run exclusively by humanitarian organizations. People there are housed in spartan wooden huts.
“To hustle them along, police and smugglers have torched many makeshift shelters and vehicles,” she said.
Among the vehicles that have been destroyed is a first-aid van purchased with donations from parishioners and friends of the American Cathedral in Paris and blessed by Convocation Bishop Pierre Whalon and Cathedral Dean Lucinda Laird, who visited the Jungle before Christmas.
In the new government camp, the refugees are housed by nationality in shipping containers with bunk beds, electricity and heating, but there are no showers and only cold running water, Closel said.
The Dunkirk camp has no cooking facilities and the French government will no longer provide any meals for the refugees, so all food is to be funded by donations and provided by nongovernmental organizations. Likewise, the cost of medical supplies and the local housing and transport for the volunteer medical staff is being covered only by donations.
Closel and Girty, who is head of mission and outreach at the American Cathedral, have organized an emergency drive for material donations to help refugees in the Dunkirk camp, culminating on Palm Sunday.
The American Cathedral in Paris, a parish in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, runs and supports several ministries that are responding to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers in France.
The Love in a Box ministry, headed by lay Episcopalian Judy Nicault, has for more than a decade distributed gifts at Christmas time for orphans and disadvantaged children throughout Europe. In 2015, Love in a Box delivered more than 3,000 gifts and focused part of its effort on reaching out to the children and unaccompanied minors living in the Jungle.
The cathedral also supports the Association d’Entraide aux Minorités d’Orient (Association to Support Eastern Minorities) that helps the French government identify candidates eligible for asylum. Through that program, weekly French language classes help refugees acclimate to their new lives in Paris.
Whalon and Iraqi businessman Elish Yako set up the association in 2007. Although it has largely focused on resettling Iraqi Christian refugees, in the past three years it has helped many Syrian minorities escaping persecution.
Like the American Cathedral, other Episcopal parishes and missions throughout Europe don’t see their response to the world’s worst refugee crisis since World War II as short term.
Episcopalians in Brussels, Munich, Rome, Wiesbaden and other places are serving the needs of refugees both through long-standing programs and new ministries that continue to evolve as the crisis evolves.
With the dismantling of the Calais camp and border closures implemented between Greece and Macedonia, one of the main transit points for refugees entering Europe, the challenges are far from over. Meanwhile, the fears of what the influx of refugees will mean for Europe’s security only seems to be intensifying.
Closel identifies as someone who has always been at the crossroads between cultures, considered European in the United States and not quite French in France.
Born in Geneva, Switzerland, to American parents, she lived in Paris from age 2 to age 8, and was baptized at the American Cathedral. For the next 20 years she lived in the U.S. and returned to France, where she has lived and worked for the past 30 years.
The most recent updates from Episcopal Relief & Development about its response to the refugee crisis, as well as ways to donate, are available here.
Episcopal Migration Ministries, the refugee resettlement service of the Episcopal Church, works with local resettlement partners, congregations, and individual volunteers to welcome refugees to the United States from the world’s most war-torn places.
– Matthew Davies is an editor/reporter of the Episcopal News Service.