Care4Calais, a British charity, has distributed over 162,000 items to migrants heading for the UK, including 2,000 free SIM cards pre-loaded with six months of data, according to reports.
Details of Handouts
The charity's annual report details how volunteers have hand-delivered 162,000 items in the UK and France. These include 2,221 Vodafone SIM cards, 3,765 hoodies, 3,532 pairs of joggers, and 1,174 t-shirts to ensure migrants are clothed and can communicate.
Handouts also included 1,173 "Ramadan food packs" distributed around Calais, 2,770 "snug packs" featuring hats, neck-warmers, and gloves, and 1,169 weatherproof garments.
Activities at Military Bases
At British military bases housing asylum seekers, Care4Calais reportedly ran 80 "drop-in sessions" and 17 large-scale handout sessions, offering 23,000 freebies. The charity also offers thousands of free haircuts, phone charging services, English lessons, and bike and sewing repairs. They provide "new arrival packs" to welcome around 1,800 migrants on the South Coast.
Criticism and Response
Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley told GB News that migrants were being "assisted every inch of the way into our country," adding, "Onto our shores, where there is more division. More anger. More frustration. People go into the streets. I'm surprised that it was only Thetford this week," referring to recent anti-migrant protests in Norfolk.
Mr Bleksley suggested there should be charities such as "Care4Crayford, Care4Cumbria or Care4Cumberland," rather than Care4Calais.
Former Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell told the outlet that "an awful lot" of the charity's activists "are naive idealists who think they are doing good." He added: "If you provide support in the camps in Calais, you are encouraging people to come to this country, regardless of the legitimacy of their asylum claim. That's not good. It's not supported by the public and it's not sustainable."
Sydney Sopher, Chief Operations Officer at Care4Calais, previously told the Daily Express: "As a humanitarian aid charity supporting refugees in Calais, what we measure is the number of refugees living in appalling conditions across northern France who need our support."
"From that perspective, the number of people currently attending our distributions is consistent with previous years, but their needs are even greater given the prolonged heatwave and the constant cycle of site evictions carried out by the French authorities that strip refugees of their shelter, belongings and dignity. Our team is working incredibly hard, as they always do, to support the refugee community."
