Challenges and impossibilities of ‘standing alongside’ in an intolerable context: Learning from refugees and volunteers in the Calais camp

Abstract

This article describes the experience of setting up a psychosocial and therapeutic support project in the French Calais refugee camp, by a group of family therapists and clinical psychologists from the United Kingdom. This came about in response to reports of a humanitarian crisis unfolding on our doorstep, with the British government's lack of support for the growing numbers of refugees gathering along the UK border with France. The project involved working alongside other agencies in the camp to provide psychosocial and resilience-based therapeutic support to unaccompanied young people, women, children and their families and also to many volunteers in the camp. The process of setting up the work is described, as well as the challenges and dilemmas of offering an intervention in extremely unsafe and insanitary conditions, where for most the experience of trauma was ongoing. The project was informed by systemic-narrative practice and community/liberation psychology, which incorporate the political and social context. A narrative framework offered a way of drawing on people's strengths and resources, rooted in their cultural and social histories and helping them connect with preferred identities, which we found to be essential in the context of ongoing crisis.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people – Understanding their journeys towards improved physical and emotional health

“…S.P. is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who volunteers for the Refugee Resilience Collective, a UK-based charitable collective of systemic and narrative therapists who have a presence in Calais once a week (Burck & Hughes, 2018). Between April 2016 and 2017, SP met with UASC in Northern France while they were residing in an unofficial temporary refugee camp known as ‘The Jungle’ or in an ‘official camp’ in Dunkirk.…”

The Functions and Legitimization of Suffering in Calais, France

“…(D efenseur des Droits, 2015: 11, my emphasis). Yet despite this promise, the south part of the "jungle" camp was destroyed by French police in February-March 2016, with perhaps 3,500 people losing their temporary homes (RRDP, 2016) as fires swept through the shelters and panicked residents tried to gather their belongings (Burck & Hughes, 2018). (Some were offered accommodation in converted shipping containers, but this involved handprints and many feared it would be an obstacle to asylum [e.g.…”

“…We have not committed any crime. We just hope for a better life.” Therapists Charlotte Burck and Gillian Hughes noted the prevalence of “We are human too” slogans in the jungle camp, and observed, “It was a continual challenge to counter the internalization of negative identities… In the current migration crisis, seeking asylum has become framed as a crime, not a right” (Burck & Hughes, 2018: 227; see also Davies et al ., 2017).…”

“…Further, as France's Défenseur de Droits noted, “the associations [various organisations supporting the exiles] were informed [in person, at each of the squats by Calais’ sub‐prefect] that if the migrants settled on this plot of land placed at their disposal by the town council, they would not be at any risk of expulsion .” (Défenseur des Droits, 2015: 11, my emphasis). Yet despite this promise, the south part of the “jungle” camp was destroyed by French police in February–March 2016, with perhaps 3,500 people losing their temporary homes (RRDP, 2016) as fires swept through the shelters and panicked residents tried to gather their belongings (Burck & Hughes, 2018). (Some were offered accommodation in converted shipping containers, but this involved handprints and many feared it would be an obstacle to asylum [e.g.…”

Therapeutic activism: Supporting emotional resilience of volunteers working in a refugee camp

“…Our team's theoretical frameworks draw on social constructionist, liberation psychology and narrative approaches (Afuape & Hughes, ; Burck & Hughes, ; White, ). We have all worked for many years with marginalised communities who have experienced abuse and violence.…”