Calais and Dunkirk

There have been camps in Calais since as far back as 1999 – historically it has been a place where migrants gather to wait for and plan passage to the UK. These camps, designated the name ’the jungle’ by residents,  have always been a places of despair and horror - as well as hope and resilience. 

In the summer of 2015 as numbers burgeoned, more people in the UK began to be aware of the humanitarian crisis on our doorstep.

October 2016 saw the huge, mismanaged , brutal clearance and dispersal of the  residents, including hundreds of unaccompanied children. Thanks to hard work from volunteers, at the last minute many children were brought across to the UK legally. Many more have been lost in the chaos of the eviction.

Since 2015 especially many individuals and community groups from the UK, not affiliated to official organisations – have responded by donating time ,money, food, provisions as well as infrastructure and organization.

Herbalists working as individuals ( but often  supported by medicine makers  the back in the UK), have helped in the first aid posts; the kitchens; women’s and children’s projects; and the prefecture managed camp in Dunkirk. 

They delivered first aid, health care access advocacy,  preventative medicine and self care support.

Sometimes, when no infrastructure existed they dispensed medicines out of the back of their cars and vans

The situation in Northern France is constantly changing and evolving. From September 2019 Herbalists Without Borders UK began to  go out to Northern France on a regular basis and work as an agency in their own right. 

Since October 2019 the HWB Calais campaign has dispensed over 5,000 herbal medicine treatments. 

The Calais project continues under the the new name of Mobile Herb Clinic Calais. To find out more about the work , click here