The current situation for people on the move in Calais

Currently, approximately 1,000 people on the move are stuck at the border in Calais, sleeping outside in tents and makeshift structures in freezing temperatures. They lack access to many of the most basic resources and endure precarious and undignified living conditions, exacerbated by continuous police evictions of their living spaces every 48 hours as part of the ‘zero points of fixation’ policy. Escalating anti-migration policy from France and the UK and rising racism against people seeking asylum has unleashed more and more violence within an already hostile environment for people on the move. In 2025, we witnessed police intimidation and harassment intensify. Police controls of people on the move on free public buses have become commonplace around Calais. People on the move have told us that they are frightened to travel around the city due to the threat of encountering police, with some people sharing that this even prevents them from accessing basic services. We’ve witnessed a rise in serious incidents of sabotage and vandalism of our water points, from both the police and members of the public.

Our work

CFC was created in 2020, when food insecurity reached an all time high with the outbreak of COVID-19. We developed a food project which centred around delivering cooking ingredients directly to the living sites, allowing displaced communities to cook for themselves, according to their personal tastes and schedules. Over the years, our work has continued to expand into new areas, filling critical gaps where the state and local authorities fail to respect and uphold basic human rights obligations.

Since 2022, we have been facilitating access to water through the installation of 1,000 litre water tanks at the living sites around Calais. Access to adequate amounts of clean water is a basic human right, recognised at an international level and enshrined in French law. Despite this, the provision of water for people on the move by the authorities in Calais is woefully inadequate, with water distributions completely inaccessible for many. As a result, CFC are the main providers of clean water for people on the move in Calais. Our water project runs 365 days a year, focusing on reliable, fixed access within close proximity of people’s living spaces. In 2024, we provided over 2.8 million litres of water.

In 2023, we began organising regular litter picks at some of the largest living sites. In Calais, people on the move have no access to bin bags, bins, or any kind of organised waste collection service, making it almost impossible to dispose of waste properly. The local authorities refuse to respond to repeated calls for solutions to be implemented. This refusal to act, alongside the refusal to provide fixed water access through taps, can be attributed to the town hall’s ‘zero points of fixation’ policy, which aims to create a hostile environment at the border and push back those seeking safety. In cooperation with Calais Ploubelle, a collaborative initiative leading a campaign for adequate waste management solutions at the living sites, and residents from the living spaces, we have collected more than 20,000 bags of waste since 2023.

We recognise the need to organise towards long-term solutions, as well as responding to the ongoing urgency of the situation faced by people on the move in Calais. Our advocacy work is interconnected with our projects providing direct support to displaced communities. We engage in various strategic forms of organising and collaborate closely with other organisations doing advocacy work at the border to push for adequate water access, waste management solutions at the living sites, and resist evictions. In 2025, our work has included taking the local authorities to court over the lack of waste management at the living sites, working with the press to denounce hostile migration policies and obstructions to water access, and providing supporting evidence to help resist evictions in the courts.

Overall, our goal is to provide direct material support to displaced communities by facilitating access to human rights that nobody should be denied, while simultaneously carrying out advocacy work to push for long-term change to the political-humanitarian situation at the UK-France border.

The importance of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding has played a hugely important role in CFC’s history. When CFC was created five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, we raised £50,000 in donations to fund our food project within our first year! This grassroots fundraising was essential for establishing our work in our early days as an organisation, and five years later, it is just as crucial for the continuity of our projects. Over the past couple of years, we have been finding it harder and harder to access grant-based funding, despite the best efforts of our fundraising team. In 2025, our goal has been to diversify our fundraising efforts and focus on building towards financial stability with the help of a strong community of supporters. With less money coming to organisations standing in solidarity at the border from bigger funders, we need the help of people-power from individuals like you who want to see our projects supporting people on the move continue, for as long as they have to.

We need your support!

For the past two years, we have been doing our best to raise funds wherever possible and keep all of our projects going despite facing severe financial precarity as an organisation. With no reserves left to dip into, we are constantly forced to make difficult choices about where to allocate our limited funds. The level of success we achieve with this fundraiser will have a direct impact on the reach of our projects in the early months of 2026. So, we need your help to reach as many people as possible with this crowdfunder to hit our target of £10,000!

If you have the means to, please consider supporting our work with a donation:

£15 pays for a food pack for a group of five people.

£80 pays for a tank of fuel.

£130 buys a 1000L water tank.

£380 pays for our food bank subscription for one month.

£500 pays our water bill for one month.

Your time and skills are valuable too! By organising an independent fundraiser on behalf of CFC, you could have a huge impact on the success of our winter crowdfunding campaign - in previous years supporters have sold artworks, prints, and jewellery, organised comedy nights and parties, and taken part in sponsored walks and cycles to raise funds!

If you are not in a place to fundraise or donate, you can still help us out by sharing this fundraiser on Instagram, within your organising groups and networks, and directly with friends and family.

We will be immensely grateful for any support you are able to provide, financial or otherwise.

Thank you, from the team at Calais Food Collective ❤