Politics at play: locating human rights, refugees and grassroots humanitarianism in the Calais Jungle

Abstract

This article examines the political footprint of a new wave of grassroots humanitarian organisations in the informal refugee camp, popularly dubbed ‘The Jungle’, in Calais, northern France. Set against the formal humanitarian void created by the French state barring of international aid agencies, and the abject conditions of camp life, we trace the shifting socio-spatial remit and progressive politicisation of these ‘apolitical’ organisations as they encounter a crisis of human rights in the Jungle, prior to its violent demolition by state decree in October 2016. In foregrounding the organisational perspectives of Play4Calais and the Refugee Youth Service, and their unorthodox deployment of play, sport, cinema and art, we reveal a grassroots humanitarian praxis which offers an alternative to the large-scale ‘professionalised’ registers of aid delivery. By virtue of their relative informality, spatial proximity and volunteer activism, these grassroots organisations not only stand in tension with the violent border sovereignties of neoliberal states, but open up the inchoate possibility for political struggle and refugee-centred claims-making over the right to inhabit the ‘exceptional’ space of the camp.

Keywords:

• Grassroots humanitarianism
• human rights
• refugee camp
• play
• sport
• calais

Notes

1. As Sandri (2017) notes, Médecins Sans Frontières and Doctors Across Borders were the only formal humanitarian agencies permitted entry to the Calais camp.

2. Popularly known as Baloo Youth Centre in the Calais site.

3. Despite having a capacity of 600 people, it is estimated that over 2,000 migrants sought temporary refuge at the Sangatte Centre prior to its closure in December 2002.

4. Following the closure of the Sangatte Centre, the most prominent of these were local charities such as L’Auberge des Migrants and Secours Catholique, as well as Calais Migrant Solidarity, a division of the activist group, No Borders. Grassroots organisations such as Care4Calais, Help Refugees, Play4Calais and the Refugee Youth Service emerged post-2014.

5. In August 2016, a Help Refugees census reported a population of 9000 people, including approximately 700 unaccompanied minors, the youngest being eight years old, with 20 registered nationalities.

6. As Moulds (2017a) reveals, under French authorities, only wood, plastics and tarpaulin were permitted to be used for shelter in the Calais camp.

7. In the case of refugees, this linkage has become explicit in the humanitarian identity of the UNHCR, which draws strongly from a rights-based approach (Hilhorst & Jansen, 2012).

8. While direct references to ‘therapy’ emerged in several interviews, it is important to note that, when pressed to elaborate, respondents typically sought to justify these claims by reproducing common rhetoric on the inherently therapeutic ‘power’ of sport and physical activity. Crucially, such humanitarian rhetoric risks reifying neoliberal narratives of individual healing and resilience rather than recognising the historical and political production of refugee displacement, maltreatment and suffering.

9. Alix expressed frustration at the gendered nature of participation in the early sporting activities organised by Play4Calais. ‘It was mainly males. Women were encouraged, but we found that teenage girls didn’t feel safe enough, and women, culturally speaking, didn’t feel it was appropriate to play football in front of the men’. It was only following the construction of the sports field that the Play4Calais team established girls-only sessions, and began to see the inclusion of women and girls in activities such as ‘tag, football, frisbee and catching games’.