THE situation doesn’t get any easier in France, according to a Launceston man who has been working with refugee support charity Open Hearts Open Borders, writes Rosie Cripps.

Robert Butler regularly visits France with the refugee charity Open Hearts Open Borders. He said his most recent trip a few weeks ago ‘went really well’, and the aid that the charity had collected was exactly what was needed — tents, sleeping bags, warm winter clothing, hats, gloves, scarves, high energy food, cereal bars, nuts, dried fruit, tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits and blankets. There was also an urgent last minute plea to take nappies and wet wipes to Dunkirk women and children’s centre, so a group of ladies at Wadebridge managed to get lots together.

Open Hearts Open Borders now has lots planned for the coming months. Robert will be travelling to France again in late June for a week, and the team is getting set for summer. All aid has been aimed at winter conditions over the last few trips, so this will change slightly as the temperatures increase. Another shipping container is also being filled to be sent to Lesvos, Greece, leaving Saltash in June or July, and the charity is also sending some pallets of aid to Kerrie Moor, who runs Hope Café in Athens. The container will go to Attika on Lesvos.

The charity supports three small grassroots groups — MRS in Northern France, Hope Café in Athens and Attika on Lesvos. Attika store and distribute all of the aid to the smaller NGOs working on the island. The space there is at a premium, and the other small groups in Cornwall contribute to this. Robert said: “The way everyone works together is amazing and the generosity of the public is also incredible.”

A small group in Penzance, One and All Aid, are currently funding a school in Iraq for the Yezidi children who ‘have been through absolute hell’, while Launceston Refugee Support Group are close to hosting a family and Bude Refugee Support Group’s second family are settling in.

“Unfortunately, though, the situation in France does not get better,” Robert continued. “A 16-year-old has just died, hit by a vehicle on the motorway, and tensions have increased.

“We had a few meetings over there with other aid organisations to discuss the situation and believe the numbers could increase. There are roughly 500 in Dunkirk, about 600 to 700 in Calais, a couple of thousand in Paris, and more people spread out all over France. Italy is not spoken about in the press, but has huge numbers. The Greek islands are literally sinking under the numbers with horrendous living conditions and disease spreading. Thousands around the coast of Turkey are waiting to take a life or death choice to flee, the situation in the Middle East is dire, and some African countries are on their knees through war and famine and civil uprisings.”

He added: “We are expecting people to try different routes and one we have our eye on is through the Italian and French Alps as the weather improves. We’re also expecting the people smugglers to try some different routes, so unfortunately we’re expecting a busy time. The authorities still spend more time talking about it and sitting on their hands, although the French authorities have, for the first time, set up a feeding station in Calais.”