The Council of State confirms the decision of the Administrative Court of Lille The Council of State ruled in favour of migrants, ordering the installation of access points of potable water, toilets and basic sanitary facilities in Calais. In addition, the Council ordered assistance for unaccompanied minors in order to inform them of their rights. Lastly, the Council ruled that the City of Calais must help all refugees who wish to remain in France to reach a CAO (Reception and Orientation Center) where they will receive shelter and assistance to claim refugee status. Although this decision is an important relief for the associations working in Calais, it is merely a…

  Every night, police forces are present at the designated place of food distribution : “you have one hour.” In the game of cat and mouse, migrants and volunteers are allowed a single hour, at which point the game is “paused.”  In Calais, the battle continues Nonetheless, the associations won the summary judgement on the municipal order of the city of Calais, forbidding associations to provide food to refugees. This legal victory gave us authorization to distribute food within the Dunes Industrial Zone, where there is a large refugee presence. The number of refugees continues to rise, with new arrivals everyday and a widening gap in ages and citizenship. In…

In light of the events that have been happening in Calais since the destruction of the Jungle last October, l’Auberge des Migrants and the associations in Calais are now, more than ever, need the support of donors to continue to stand for the preservation of migrants’ rights. For more details of the events in Calais, you can read the Human Rights Watch’s report of the living conditions of migrants and police brutality. We will have to improve and expand our actions in order to provide the necessary humanitarian aid needed. We will continue distributing water, meals, clothes, blankets and hygiene products. In order to continue these activities, we need financial…

By Dan Chadder In ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, two of the wisest humans ask a stupendous super-computer to calculate the answer to the ultimate question: the meaning of life. Returning in exactly 7 and a half million years, the answer they receive somewhat dampened the jubilant mood of the cheering crowd. It was 42. So there you have it. The official meaning to life, the universe and everything is 42. As if this number were not already significant enough, volunteers in Calais have now developed an even greater personal connection to the number 42 than as merely the meaning of life. I recently left L’auberge des Migrants after…