12 OCTOBER: FATIGUE

i arrived back feeling a great sense of relief in calais. i attended a demonstration in poitiers against a new EU superprison which unfortunately degenerated into a riot. the journey and the protest took their toll and after two nights without any real sleep im intending to have a good couple of early nights (hopefully) and to help make some new stickers! after the barcelona meeting i feel more than ever that its really important to communicate with local people and create discussion around this issue. there are already a good group of local people involved in the more political side of this campaign. the last batch of stickers have mysteriously appeared all around calais and its quite heartening to see school kids gathering around a lamp post to check them out. for migrants things have got much much worse. A and B come round and fill us in on an increase in recent police activity. they all seem a lot more desperate. this is completely understandable as an early morning patrol left me shivering in the new jungles. winter is setting in. i feel so sorry for those who don’t have a safe warm home to go back to as they wander down the road with tshits and towels wrapped around their faces. i later see teenagers wearing sandals and shorts… im surprised that M and others maintain their commitment. we went together to a jungle to find a migrant who is due to be deported this afternoon. M has prepared all the paperwork to challenge the decision and prevent his deportation. after a lengthy search for the deportee he eventually turns up and eyes M’s paperwork with suspicion. he wont sign it. i can completely understand his phobia of this whole rotten bureaucratic system. he comes from a country where the government can never be trusted and bureaucrats, documents and regulations are trouble to be avoided at all costs. but M has toiled over these documents late into the night. he must be gutted. but he takes it in his stride. we wonder whether his amazingly dry sarcasm is partly a result of doing this work for so long. you can never quite tell whether he is joking. about anything. its almost like a more benign version of the mannerisms of the local police. both do a thankless job and receive daily abuse… the next day i agree to translate for another migrant challenging a judicial decision. after a whole morning of waiting around and eventually meeting with the somber deportee he informs me that he thinks the council will be providing a translator. sure enough, the man eventually rolls up in a bmw and eyes me with suspicion. i am waved away after a whole morning of waiting without even a thank you. but how can you complain when you are dealing with someone who spends sleepless nights huddled in the cold. when it is your government responsible for freezing the humanity out of the man. out of his community. out of thousands upon thousands. reducing them to a state worse than cattle?

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