Glastonbury Festival aftermath - hundreds of tents, camping equipment, blankets and beer abandoned by festival goers to tired to carry what belongings they've brought back to there car to take home and use again. It feels mental trawling through the post apocalyptic chaos salvaging anything that might be useful. We find everything from cushions, blow up beds, clothes, food, beer, shoes, tents, sleeping bags, solar showers, torches hoping that these things will come in useful for people living in the streets of Calais. 

We arrive in Calais with a transit packed full of things we found at Glastonbury.

A few weeks ago in Calais hundreds of refugees were targeted by the French Police. Attacked, detained, arrested, blankets and tents destroyed. Lots were taken by coach - accompanied by riot police and helicopters to Paris, some were put into detention centres others deported to Italy and surrounding countries. The day we arrive we meet refugees who have come back to Calais since, clutching on to Police reports they ask us if we have tents, blankets and clothes, all that they had have been destroyed by the Police.

It's a desperate situation, here you will find a lot of the Worlds refugees waiting for an opportunity to make it to the UK. Refugees from Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tunisia all live on the streets and the Industrial wasteland around the port of Calais. It's a desolate industrial landscape, it doesn't feel welcoming more harsh and cold. All the refugees that arrive here are fleeing, they come from places where famine, war and human rights abuses make it to dangerous for them to stay. 'We are the lucky ones' says Yousif from Darfur. I meet him under a bridge in the centre, he's wrapped up in a blanket on the floor, his shoes neatly placed at the end of his makeshift bed. He's with ten other guys all from Sudan and one guy from Tunisia. He tells me that they're lucky because the people in the camps of Darfur have it much harder. Yousif is a human rights activist, his mission is to get to the UK so he set up a project that can help his people back in Darfur. He tells me how the agencies that work in Darfur just keep people alive by feeding them, his dream is to educate the young people, build schools and show them that the future can be better. He's wise, his English is perfect and I respect him for his ambition. 

We distribute what we have, a fight breaks out between a man and a 14 year old boy over a tent a stark reminder of how disposable and thoughtless our culture has become. At 6pm everyday a Catholic group provides food for the refugees, most live off that one meal a day. The queues are massive, I would say 300 - 400 people come here for there one meal. They eat, play football, make friends. The refugees of the world unite here. The French Police film us, they drive around the food distribution taking notes and documenting people.

Everything in Calais is in your face, in daylight you'll find refugees walking the roads, approaching vehicles and getting into them. Some succeed and others get caught by the police and told 'better luck next time'. There is close to 1000 refugees in Calais, more arrive everyday. Lots are trafficked, they pay smugglers huge amounts to cross the Mediterranean. I find their determination overwhelming. Each and every one of these people has an incredible story to tell. Most have crossed the Sahara, have travelled through war torn Libya and have survived sailing across the Sea on overcrowded boats. They walked hundreds of miles. In our culture people who do this are praised, I wonder why these people are not made heroes of, they've gone against all odds to reach this place.

I start researching for a play, we want to make a play about borders and rights. I've been to some crazy borders in my time (the border of Egypt and Gaza been one particular insane place) but Calais feels as raw. It's close to home and feels like the perfect place to start, but for now I feel like it's inappropriate to interview people. I meet people, talk to them and try to understand. Yousif thanks me for my solidarity he says that it's nice that I want to listen to his story. I hope I get to meet him again soon.

For more information on Calais and how you can get involved please visit http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com

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Comment by Jenny Phillips on July 18, 2014 at 5:15

Amazing work.  Please come and do another Creative visit soon!  You have some fantastic ideas. Jx

Comment by john norton on July 17, 2014 at 20:24

brilliant recycling of glastonbury waste!

Comment by Gavin Porter on July 16, 2014 at 23:02

firstly, hats off to you for helping out on such a brilliant initiative. And I look forward to seeing what you create

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