Author: Sue

December 13th – URGENT UPDATE- CALAIS KIDS LEFT IN FRANCE, FREEZING AND STARVING THIS XMAS

CALAIS CHILDREN: A CASE TO ANSWER
A campaign and documentary film-in-progress by Sue Clayton

This is a crowd-funded project and we desperately need help to finish it. I raised £20,000 and put in £4000 of my earnings, but need about £12,000 more to finish as we are trying to get all over France, and crew travel and gear costs plus editing costs have to be covered. Plus I’ve been buying coats scarves socks and shoes for the kids as a basic necessity, as many are literally without shoes and in the thin t-shirts they wore in Calais, now in minus temperatures.

As most people know Calais is the UK’s border. And yet 10,000 people were left there in the unofficial Jungle camp without their cases being processed – including an indeterminate number of unaccompanied minors – the youngest I met was 8. Over the last 2-3 months I along with other groups have battled to get these children at least named and recognised, especially as the camp was under threat of demolition. With crowd-funding help, I not only located over 160 children and filmed with many of them, I also got a team of volunteer human rights lawyers and social worker assessors to go to Calais to support them. Between myself and three other groups we were finally able to demonstrate the total number of under 18’s in camp was not 300, as the Home Office cynically/ignorantly reported, but almost 1600… Very many of these minors already have the right to be in UK under Dublin 3 provision; others offered a classic example of children who should be eligible under the Dubs Amendment.

We managed to get a steady number to UK, both as the camp was destroyed and after – that is since the French, who are extremely angry that UK has not accepted greater responsibility – have bussed the minors to “accommodations” all over France.

Since the Calais closure in November I have been travelling with my crew, and exclusively talked with them all over France, filming mostly undercover. I found some in relatively good care- but many others supposedly in care arrangements suitable for minors agreed between the British and French governments, are in various locations underfed, starving, freezing, and at more than one place on hunger strike, and with no adult supervision at all. If the hunger strike persist, kids will die- they’re already weak from malnutrition. Many – including 11 and 12 year olds – have run away and will now never get their chance of safety or security.

It’s shocking to note that these are children who STILL HAVE A CASE TO BE IN THE UK – but with years of denial by the Home Office, followed by a shoddy deal with the French over the Calais closure, and botched and wilfully inadequate assessment processes (kids’ cases were being assessed by low-ranking officers with no translators on the bus as they left the camp) their hope for justice is slipping away every day.

They have rights that have not been heard. They are suffering deeply- most say even the Jungle was better as they had more ways and means than virtual imprisonment in remote French holding-pens where no-one feeds. clothes or supports them. This is the UK’s dirty little secret- paying the French to avoid properly processing the young people.

The Home Office says they have now closed their list for UK – see
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/dec/09/home-office-transfers-of-calais-child-refugees-to-uk-cease
But this must not happen until every child has been properly interviewed and got lasting decisions made, in accordance with human rights law. . . I know many who are still in very bad contusions in the French ‘holding accommodation’ who absolute qualify under Dublin 3 or current Dubs, even the restricted definition of Dubs that stands now.

There is pressure to keep going- a demonstration is being held at the House of Lords this Tuesday 13th Dec 6-7pm, and there is a major court appeal being heard this Tuesday and Weds 13 and 14th- which challenges the Home Office’s recent criteria for Dubs. (currently pretty much limited to Sudanese and Syrians under 16 only, plus anyone else under 12).

More than anything I need to keep getting to all the places where the young people are- many have my number and contact me by Whats App desperate for help- and that I can keep recording this tragic human rights cock-up and get this evidence out to the public and the government to get more of them to safety.

My last film Hamedullah the Road Home was used many times in court to argue against removing turned-18s to Afghanistan. Calais Children: A Case to Answer I expect to have a similar use: help take these cases to court and publicise, pressurise the Home Office to deal more promptly, justly and humanely with these young people on our doorstep.

As well as to get every Calais child a fair deal, this outcry is for the benefit the 85,000 lone and unsafe children in Europe who face battles such as this in now an in the future.

Please contribute here at calais.gebnet.co.uk and see https://www.facebook.com/calaischildren/

(Donate by credit or debit card, no Paypal account needed)

I have to raise £10,000 to complete this vital work. It’s winter. The kids are cold starving and confused. We can win the battle with help of our lawyer colleagues and I regularly get material onto ITV evening news. (One coming up later this week). PLEASE HELP XXXX And you can be sure your contribution makes a difference!

Dear all
As promised an update! Sorry its taken so long, Ive been in Calais, 5th time, then back last week and dealing with real life (!) and logging and editing the early material for 2 events, WHEN WORDS FAIL (Goldsmiths Theatre and Film event last week) and I AM HUMAN- PRECARIOUS JOURNEYS, an installation that previews at Senate House as part of the national BEING HUMAN festival this Thurs 17th Nov , then has its drinks,lecture and launch at St James Hatcham gallery, New Cross, this Friday 18th at 7pm, then runs over the weekend until Sunday night at Hatcham Gallery.

So…
I filmed with ITN up to the end of Calais Jungle, and also of course with my own crew. Whats happened now is that:
– The French set up registraton for everyone in the Jungle but omitted to tell anyone that (except the world’s media who turned up with their expensive OB vans, scarily long lenses and Dad’s Army style tin helmets, in prodigious numbers, ) .. registration was off site and may of h young people especailly the girls are intimidated by such processes, and journeys, and crowds.. barriers crasjed several times, dangerous organisation. So the result was that many but not all of the lone under 18s registered – also some were turned away as queues too long, then came back later in the week to find registration point had vanished. Others never got there at all.
– During the week of Oct 24th, the French bussed about 4000 adults and fmailies to other areas of France (this doesn’t mean they have the right to asylum in France, but they will at least be housed while their applicatons are considered.
– Meanwhile the under 18s were gradually moved ito the ‘container’ area of camp as the rest of camp was burnt down aorund them. The containers in one way are better- dry, and more importantly, everyone s finally LOGGED and their NAME TAKEN DOWN so they EXIST (HURRAH).. But there were up to 20 in a container and no heating , also no food in that enclosure, kids forced to queue for makeshift food distributed on road outside. Plus those who ahd not manahed to register had to sleep in the very cold and foggy dunes outside the fence of the containers as their tents all gone so they had nothing at all. Have pics of that. Heartbreaking.
– Our lawyers and other lawyers have been mantaining contact with their clients, and because of this , several hundred children have now got to the UK under Dubs Amendment or Dublin 3. (mainly the latter).
However what this process threw up was that contrary to the HO saying originaly there were no lone under 18s in camp, then that there were 387, there were finally counted as 1562- and President Hollande raitifed this when he annouced it publicly and said to the UK, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND HELP- as at least est. 700 of these have the legal right to come to UK under Dublin 3.
– I filmed the kids we had got to know well, and we watched as they were bussed off from the containers end of last week, to other parts of France, into childrens’ accommodation.
– On each bus were two UK “Detention officers” (guess what, its illegal to detain under 18s) whose job was apparetly to ‘assess their cases” while on the bus! The idea that 2 low-level security officers make life-changing assessments of 50 childrens’ lives/ages/ legal cases and so on, without interpreters and without independent witneses or social workers present, contravenes about 15 protocols and is actionable. In the UK the assessment process would last for weeks – It wouldnt happen to cold tired and traunatised kids on a bus journey to who knows where (some were on buses for 15 hours) and they’d had no food that day before they left, they were freezing and hungry.
– The job of the campaign and the film is now to keep tracj fo the kids and put pressure both governmental and legal on the UK govt to properly and honourbaly settle all the cases, and film/record this process too.. Thats why I called the film A CASE TO ANSWER- it will come to this, and while its a less dramatic stage of the filming, its equally as improtant, as whatever is established with the Calais chilren will in many ways provide a precedent for other conflictual situations in which the remaining 85,000 unaccompanied refugee children in Europe, find themselves.

Project- wise, I ned to fim the legal and political phase now which is less expensie and intense than the Jungle but still a cost nonetheess. I aim to finish the film by Xmas or not long after, and it be used as above to support the ongoing battle to highlight the larger issues across Eurpe of such children lacsking support and representation.

In short- We won inasmuch as we got the kids listed and named and France acknowledged their exitence.
The ongoing fight is that just because the kids are temporarly hosued elsewhere in France, this must not be swept under the carpet nor must they be quietly deported back to their countries, or cynically and wrongly age -assessed, or that the UK do yet another dirty deal with France to offshore the issue.

I know a lot else is gong on to distract people right now, but please all share this page among all your contacts, and ask them to contribute to funding at calais.gebnet.co.uk

In these difficult times, take heart from the fact we ran a campaign and won quite a lot – hard hard work and stressful and not over yet, but did it with your fundng support and your encouragement.
Lets keep going and achieve even more- this film will stand as a test case for all the other children and young people alone in Europe.

Dont let them be forgotten. Give them a voice. Thanks xx

Eritreans yesterday illegally imprisoned in the Containers. Currently pawns is a post-Brexit slanging match between UK and France. But they are happy to see us anyway and know that wherever they are sent today, we will still fight their case. Please fund the film and campaign

Not giving up. And we won’t give up on you.
Containers were dangerous night before last, one of their friends badly stabbed. So they all went out of containers to sleep in the Ethiopian church. ( Built by them and by volunteers. Now in a toxic watseland full of rats as camp been taken down). These are 9-16 year olds. And then the UK Border Force arrives next morning – a mere one year late- and says ” we’re in charge of them, you can’t speak to them”. Yeah sure: You were also in charge when two died and 42 were raped, and in charge when they were starved and stabbed. They had no food in the containers yesterday, and they were penned in. (Illegal for under 18s.) The Home Office and the UK Border Force has a lot to answer for. And we will take these cases through the courts. Every last one.

http://www.itv.com/news/2016-11-02/remaining-1-500-calais-children-removed-from-camp/

Thanks everyone for amazing support. Problems last night in Calais camp as more of the wooden buidlings were burnt down- some of it is for fire and warmth, some in anger and protest, some is things just spreading- since part of the camp was destroyed in March, people more pushed in together and one shack fire will then take out several more. There is now confusion re the containers- they hold 1500 people and now are supposed to be for unaccompanied kids only – but there are 300 kids not in there yet and these 300 have been displaced by fires. Only consolation is that this is now a big news story and the French authorities at least are takng the issue to heart and are responding to these issues better and faster, Worst of all is UK who, while enjoying the fact that the French deal with our dirty work (ie run the UK border at Calais) – have helpfully responded by sending…. TWO police officers. Wow that will really help, Think Glasto for angry displaced poor desperate people, think 100 or more CRS and Gendarmes, and oh yes, 2 British cops. Plod. Plod Plod. UK have just signed another cheque for £40 million, plus the £11 million wall, plus we pay for the CRS. and now – two cops!

Full update later today- just back in UK- the camp is closing – adults and families are being given the chance to go to other parts of France where they will be housed. (However its not explained to them that this doesnt mean their asylum case has been accepted longer term). The under 18s are being registered, wrist-tagged and then returned to a particular section of camp (previously used by adults and families waiting to be housed) which isn’t a perfect venue for lone minors as camp destroyed and protests happen literally inches from the fence between them and rest of camp- but its a lot safer and warmer than where they were before (-cold wet tents and no food -) – and from this venue the Home Office will assess their cases. Hence the very great need for UK lawyers to be attendng to these cases and why Im so proud of Duncan Lewis Solicitors for sending their young pro bono lawyers in such great numbers to take on these clients in very difficult and often dangerous conditions.

STOP PRESS A NUMBER OF OUR CASES GOT ACCEPTED AND MADE IT TO UK YESTERDAY! UNDER DUBS AMENDMENT! ABOUT TIME!! HAD NOT BEEN USED BEFORE FOR CALAIS KIDS> WE HAVE SIGNED UP NEARLY 100 OF THOSE I FOUND > HOPE THIS WILL BE LEGAL PRECEDENT !! PLEASE KEEP FUNDING US !!!!

Dear all
Thanks again for your amazing support and donations. And sorry my last couple of updates were a bit demented: I was trying to further the campaign with 9 lawyers and 6 social worker colleagues that i invited out here (more below) and shoot with a new crew, and were doing day and night shoots. Update from camp is that last Tues evening the CRS in riot shields came into camp (we filmed it) and hammered notices Nazi style on doors of all tiny shops and cafes (which are ESSENTIAL for everyone- batteries, SIM cards, basic food if people have money to buy, eg 30 cent home made naan bread ) saying in 5 pages of legalese French that all of them must close in 48 hours. So French Govt starving people out. We suspected there would be a big protest after that so stayed through the night- sure enough desperate attempts by hundreds to get up to the UK road, repelled by about 14 CRS vans with tear gas and batons and riot shields. . (All paid for by us, dear reader, under UK-France le Touquet deal where the French do UK dirty work. Gassing children on our tax dollar. Nice. ….I have pic of 12 year old after being gassed. Horrible. ) . So hence a lot going on.

Now had a couple days back in UK to recoup and to chase the UK end of the story. As well as our film, and that I managed to get the story twice on ITN from Calais and interviewed by Sky News, I also got some UK documents leaked which were ITN main story last Weds 6.30pm and second main story Weds 10pm news. (you can google my name and calais and those will i hope come up ) Basically saying that Home Office are so under-prepared that they are appealing to charities and untrained volunteers to help. Clearly if the publicity hadn’t started this would never have reached the news. Now HO are on the back foot. They had a year to process Calais kids cases and did nothing at all. While they did nothing, many suffered and two died. I have evidence which Im putting out on ITN next week that the HO insistence that there are no places in UK for these kids is completely untrue- foster parents are ready and prepped to received them. Foster agencies say Its the cost and the fact HO may look ‘soft” that is the only prohibitor.

Now back in camp which is a sorry place. The numbers dropping all the time,, not in a good way. NUMBERS: The French say they can rehouse when numbers drop from 10,000 to 7000- academics among us, please lets write about the NUMBERS game.. Its inhuman. I still can’t believe on Monday 24th (TWO DAYS- EEK) they will raze the entire camp and neatly get 7000 people including nearly 1000 minors onto busses and disperse them across France . (Though our hotel here is entirely booked out with gendarmes from elsewhere all staying here so maybe they will) . Monday will be a very big day.

THE PROBLEM IS THERE ARE est. 1000 kids. 387 were named 6 weeks ago by one group Safe Passage. . I have have found 116 more, and will find more this weekend. Another group has found over 100. But HO refuses to acknowledge more than the 387. It is defined that at least 400 have the legal right to come to UK under EU Dublin 3 clause, and we are doing an emergency appeal to take the rest under Dubs Amendment. PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR MP and anyone else NOW demanding that the HO take the time (they’ve had a year and did nothing) to register and properly and humanely assess the 1000 kids, not just send a handful to UK for photo-ops and starve out the rest. Please anyone who knows JeremCorbyn speak to him as he is fully on board with this.

(Speaking of photo ops, the much disputed ‘older kid’ in the Sun etc was the 40- year old interpreter… )

More numbers… As this is a campaign not only a film, you will be pleased to know that as well as the 387 children Safe Passage identified in the last months I have been able to locate and identify a further 116 (and expect to find more this weekend. ) Of these 116, because I have been lucky enough to get Duncan Lewis solicitors involved (And they’ve been here in force, young amazing team signing up my finds asap), then amazing support from Social Workers without Borders, also sending team soy volunteer professional soc workers, everyone doing it at own cost) we have been able to sign up and have social worker assessed, for Best Interests, 42 clients and 30 of these are already in to the Home Office as emergency appeals. If they are not accepted we will pursue further legal action.

Problem is the Safe Passage list , great though it was, was seen as a definitive list and the govt very happy to address only it and do a numbers deal – eg they say 300 would be ‘a nice number” and this ignores the fact that there are 700 more, with a VERY STRONG LEGAL CASE to come to Uk (see my prior emails on this.) Its not charity, its not a nice number, ts the HO blatantly ignoring minors who have a strong case to be here under Dubs and Dublin 3, leaving them in cold tents with no food or power, no-one registering their names, and no process at all until last week.

I know where more of the kids are then the HO does. This is not right. I can only do so much by Monday when the camp s et to close. Only about 1/3 of the kids have mobiles. Many will be lost who had the legal right to be here. remember Calais is not an official camp Its literally about a a 100 young volunteers, mainly untrained, and no infrastructure AT ALL. And now about 15 film crews who are just headline grabbing and ignoring this key story.

I hope we will have got about 100 more lawyered up and can find a way to maintain contact after the mayhem that all be Monday.
But I NEED YOUR HELP.

Please viral this. Please write to your MP. Please send to all your contacts and ask them to give as generously as you have already done.

This is the greatest human rights abuse from UK govt Ive seen in my lifetime. Please use all social media and alt news networks to help me get this out. and get ore people to contribute.

We now have sites

http://calais.gebnet.co.uk/urgent-appeal YOU AN DONATE ON IT

and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/calaischildren/?pnref=story

Will update the text on both later today, but youre welcome to fwd this email to your trusted lists.

And see my report on http://www.itv.com/news/2016-10-14/calais-children-new-home-in-uk/

Plus interviewed on http://news.sky.com/story/beautiful-day-for-jungle-camp-children-as-they-reach-uk-10621441

Alos see http://www.gold.ac.uk/news/calais-mission/

and for info http://news.sky.com/story/mps-and-peers-demand-action-on-calais-jungle-migrant-camp-10625311

Love to all.

Sue xxxx