AntiNote: The following are quotes from people living in the Calais refugee camp, a.k.a. the Jungle, between 2-7 October 2015. They have intentionally been left unedited and without provision of further context.
«Welcome to the new city!»
-A passer-by
«The jungle now is fucked. But Darfur is fucked too much!»
-Yusef, from Sudan
«My name Hassan. When I go to UK will be Jack.
Now I’m Jack of the jungle!»
-Hassan, from Iraq. Offering tea.
«You live in free country.
You go to cinema, anybody stop you? No.
You go to dancing with your girlfriend, anybody stop you? No.
Iran is not free. We have dictators there.»
-Ali, from Iran.
«I come to Europe for freedom.
Always war in Sudan, too dangerous.
But France is bad, UK better.»
-Brahim, from Sudan
«ISIS killed all my family. I am here because I run»
-Jungle resident from Iraq, name unknown
«No luck tonight, no luck. (…)
We don’t understand why English government don’t let us in.
We have war in Syria.»
-Syrian brothers Abdelaziz, 17, and Nader, 20, on their way back to the camp.
«I buried all my family in bin bags with blood on my hands.
They didn’t believe me. They think it’s action movie.
But it’s not action movie, it’s reality!
It’s my life!
(…)
We come a long way to have human rights,
But now I don’t know what is human rights;
We want animal rights, give us animal rights!
Because animals are treated better than we are.»
-Ahmed, from Syria – interviewed by Irish volunteers
«From tent to tent, from camp to camp,
these are our lives as a Palestinian nation.»
«When I die, bury me in Palestine
and write on my grave:
I am not a refugee anymore. »
-Ahmed, from Palestine – poems
«Where is our life here?»
-Graffiti on a makeshift shelter, jungle main road.
Source: Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)
