Christian MPs visit the Jungle to highlight continued appalling conditions

Two Catholic MPs and one Anglican will visit Calais’ 6,000-strong migrant camp on Thursday to experience the conditions of ‘the Jungle’ and work towards a political resolution to the refugee crisis.

The delegation, consisting of French and British MPs, is being led by Catholic charity CSAN in partnership with Secours Catholique, which is providing practical and legal support to the thousands of people living in the squatter camps on the edge of the small French port town.

Mike Kane, MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, travels from London by Eurostar on Thursday morning with Patrick Grady MP (Glasgow North), Mark Williams MP (Ceredigion), and the crossbench peer Lord Hylton. They join French parliamentarians from both the centre Left and centre Right parties.

The one-day visit includes a tour of the camp (during the day and at night), lunch with volunteers from Secours Catholique and with refugees, discussion time about the wider refugee crisis and dinner at an Afghan restaurant in the camp.

The trip aims to highlight the perilous conditions in the camp for people seeking refuge from war-torn and politically unstable countries.

Dr Philip McCarthy, CEO of CSAN said: “On this, our second trip to the ‘Jungle’ in Calais, we hope that by bringing together British and French politicians to show them the deplorable conditions of the camp first-hand, they will be inspired to act in recognition of our common humanity to find a fair and humane political resolution to the crisis. 

“Moving forward, it is our hope that this trip will be a further step towards the British government engaging in constructive dialogue with their French counterparts to give the inhabitants of the camp the opportunity to begin to rebuild their lives.”

Pope Francis at the weekend addressed refugees and migrants gathered in St Peter’s Square, entreating Catholics to “welcome the stranger”. He bemoaned the “lack of clear and practical policies regulating the acceptance of migrants and providing for short or long term programmes of integration” and praised the work of those who care for vulnerable people.

Bishop Patrick Lynch, Chair of the Office for Migration Policy at the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, met with the Minister responsible for Syrian refugees on Monday to reaffirm the Church’s support for efforts to accommodate people fleeing the conflict.

In a statement after the meeting that echoed the views of the Pope, he said the Catholic community in England and Wales has a responsibility to “extend the hand of welcome” to vulnerable refugees.

The majority of residents at the Calais camps are from Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea.