_terre des oublis
Camps and safe houses across Asia, Africa and Europe strike a path towards Calais, a small port town once known for its’ lace industry. That legacy, however, is long gone. The northern French town now finds itself perilously at the epicenter of the European war on migration and is the final staging ground for the push into England. Only 21 miles from the Promised Land, the English Channel separates these refugees from their dreams. Stowing away on trains or clinging to trucks, they will attempt the passage. Most will try numerous times before they succeed.
In Calais, they live in the shadows constantly on the lookout for patrolling Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) police units. On railroad box cars, in abandoned warehouses or beside canals, they sleep huddled against the cold and always in fear. Charities fill a void by providing food and clothing but they can do no more. A few locals flout national laws and give safe haven but even this is rare. Relief organizations and NGOs attempt to help them navigate a patchwork legal system wrought with inconsistencies and one which ignores reality. In Terre des Oublis (the land of forgetting), they have only each other.
A truck sits alongside train tracks in Calais, France on January 25, 2010. Asylum seekers seek to enter the UK by stowing away on cargo trucks.
Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) police arrest Afghan asylum seekers in Calais, France on Saturday, March 20, 2010.
CRS police raid the illegal, abandoned warehouse called "Africa House" in Calais, France on March 10, 2010. African asylum seekers use Africa House as a temporary home as they attempt to find passage across the English Channel on trucks or trains.
CRS police raid the illegal, abandoned warehouse called "Africa House" in Calais, France on March 19, 2010. African asylum seekers use Africa House as a temporary home as they attempt to find passage across the English Channel on trucks or trains.
CRS police raid the illegal, abandoned warehouse called "Africa House" in Calais, France on April 6, 2010. African asylum seekers use Africa House as a temporary home as they attempt to find passage across the English Channel on trucks or trains.
