Liz Clegg: a wonderful Lady in the Calais Jungle

Liz Clegg is an English lady who arrived in the Calais Jungle since last August. She noticed that there was few things done for the women and the teenagers (except in the Jules Ferry camp) . She built and runs currently the Children and Women’s centre and has become a surrogate mother of hundreds of unaccompanied refugees, especially teenagers, mostly 12, 13, 14 year old Afghan boys who were sent to Europe for their own safety after their fathers were killed.
During a big party in February in the Good Chance Theater with the visit of the actor Jude Law and many other celebrities in Calais, she red this very moving letter :


Jamil –
I’ve packed another bag for you tonight. I’ve managed to find a really good sleeping bag this time it’s cold. I remembered the bin bags. Please use them – it will help keep you a bit dryer. There’s two pairs of socks and a torch in the side pocket and I’ve put in some snacks and five euros. Please try not to  lose your phone again.
Jamil, I’m scared. I’m scared I’m going to lose you. The forms they’ve given me don’t have a box for you, and no one’s prepared to change this. You have to be clever in this game Jamil, you have to talk the talk, understand complex law. They don’t want to hear about our lives, our daily routine to keep  dry and fed and out of trouble. They are not interested in the nightly ritual of watching you leave  ‘to try’ to get to the UK, let alone acknowledge the panic I feel because I may never know what came of you. Or worse still you join the growing list of those who died trying.
Jamil, I beg you,  listen to me , don’t get into a refrigerated lorry, wait for something safer. Massoud was older, he still died. I can’t promise to solve this, but I am trying.
Jamil – I love you dearly, never finished, and I will fight to the bitter end to keep you safe.



video

Very moving indeed. Every individual story is the same, and we cannot but be touched with every particular case. But what can we do with the thousands of them ?