Community Care journalist Rachel Shraer travelled with the convoy, organised by both Swan and Stand Up To Racism, to Calais on the 17th October 2015. Here you can read her report, highlighting the complexities of organising aid across borders, with no state assistance, and the desire amongst the social work profession to promote social justice. Alongside the donations, Swan and SUTR organised a rally that was held alongside refugees, to demonstrate our solidarity with those trapped in the Jungle, and have produced an International Swan petition alongside other social work agencies that demands social policy change.
Events early November in Calais have taken an unpleasant turn, with police firing rubber bullets, masses of tear gas and pacifying grenades directly at refugees. The need to send messages of support and find ways to demonstrate solidarity is not going to disappear, and Swan remains committed to the cause of refugees and asylum seekers experiencing serious social injustice.
