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The Refugee Women's Centre is starting an urgent appeal for funds for a vehicle to go mobile following the closure of the refugee camp of La Linière, in Grande-Synthe, a suburb of Dunkirk about 30 minutes from Calais.

Thank you to all of you that sent kind messages, as promised, here is how we experienced the week and how we plan to go from here on.

THE FIRE & CAMP CLOSURE

A fire destroyed the camp on the 10th of April in the evening. In the testimonies from people who were in the camp at that time, there is quite a wide array of explanations as to why and how it happened. However, there is one thing that all agree on: the fire could have been contained and the destruction could have been hugely limited, had the police force intervened more consistently to prevent the fighting from escalating, and had the firefighters been allowed on site earlier whilst they were held at the entrance of the camp for more than two hours. Yes the fire was probably ignited by people living in the camp, but the scale of the destruction cannot be justified on the ground of “ethnic tensions”. The camp had been checked for fire safety standards by a professional team mandated by the state (in December), and the Children’s Centre had invited a professional firefighter to organise workshops around fire safety in the camp (in February). That 70-80% of the camp was destroyed has more to do with inapt response from the police force and the firefighters, who get their instructions from the Prefecture. This event was incredibly convenient for the French authorities, who wanted to close the camp anyway.