\u201cIt seemed vaguely productive\u201d, Zara explains when I asked her why she volunteered with Roots, a humanitarian organization in Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk. \u201cI do study politics, so I write about these things in the abstract, but I thought it could be nice to get involved in that way. There\u2019s only so many summers of uni left.\u201d She pauses. \u201cIt\u2019s not the most noble reason ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I first met Zara O\u2019Shea, 22, from Northern Ireland, when I visited Roots at the end of July this year. Roots, an environmentally conscious humanitarian organisation, provides aid to migrants hoping to cross the English Channel from France to the UK. According to its website, Roots was founded in 2017 when its founder and current President of the board of Trustees, Thomas Gilbert, started recycling old batteries to make low-cost power packs for migrants. Since then, the organization has hosted over 140 volunteers. Roots provides charging services and humanitarian aid to migrants and maintains free-standing water tanks and showers for migrants to use. Sarah Berry, the Treasurer of Roots, told me when I visited, \u201cIt’s really vital work we\u2019re doing here. Nobody else is bothering.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I followed their volunteers and coordinators on a day\u2019s \u201ccommunity hub\u201d aid distribution. We drove out in a convoy of cars and vans to a clearing nestled between a main road and some railway tracks, passing French CRS riot police on the way. Around the clearing are unused fields, bushes and trees that make it impossible to see beyond a few hundred yards in the furthest direction. There, they erected two gazebos weighed down by cinder blocks. They set up a generator connected to improvised wooden boards with dozens of charging ports. A hundred or so migrants from Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea, and a host of other countries were already there waiting\u2014some standing talking in groups, others sitting on pieces of torn-up cardboard boxes. Throughout the day, different groups and people came and went. Migrants would constantly disappear and reappear from the trees and bushes. A local French collective arrived and gave out hot meals. A woman from Belgium showed up in her car and started handing out gloves and socks out of her trunk. A migrant woman set up a shop, a regular fixture apparently, out of a shopping cart, selling snacks and cigarettes. A winding line of male migrants stemmed from each provider and twisted around the clearing: mothers and children waiting on the side for whoever was queuing on their behalf. At one point, an ambulance with a police escort showed up to collect a pregnant Vietnamese woman in a \u201ccritical condition\u201d, so a coordinator told me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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My memory of Zara in Dunkirk is of her dressed in a faded hoody, combat pants, and her green Roots high-vis bib. The coordinators told everyone to stay in pairs, to stay in the clearing, and to stick near the gazebo \u2014there had been a shooting in the area the night before. Zara and I watched over the children\u2019s board game area and the charging station together. I was struck that day by Zara\u2019s sense of humour in contrast to the other volunteers and coordinators who were very serious. A student at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Zara is now studying for a semester at UC Berkeley in California. Reflecting on the day we met, she says, \u201cThe stuff you\u2019re seeing in Dunkirk doesn\u2019t fit in with the normal conflicts you normally have and the stuff that\u2019s bothering you in normal life. So you just can\u2019t process it in the minute.\u201d She laughs as she talks for much of our interview, just like when we spoke in Dunkirk. But it is still a laugh that does not seem sure of itself. I sense that Zara is still processing her month with Roots.<\/p>\n
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Dunkirk and Roots had never been Zara\u2019s plan. \u201cI was looking to go somewhere in Greece. It seemed suited more to my skill set. It\u2019s more settled in Greece. There are people setting up schools and community centers there. I was looking for something more community-focused because I don\u2019t have any hard skills. After all, I chose a humanities degree\u2014silly.\u201d She laughs. \u201cI ended up spending my summer lifting cinder blocks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Again, I asked her why, of all the things she could have done in the summer, she chose to work with refugees. This time, she goes further, \u201cThe focus of my studies is welfare organisations, and I\u2019ve had a lot of involvement with the Free Palestine movement. A lot of that is about how I just don\u2019t believe there should be borders. Obviously, I\u2019m literally just a child so my opinion on this doesn\u2019t matter, but I don\u2019t think there should be borders or nations in an ideal world. I don\u2019t think it’s right or fair in any way that some people are allowed to be born with so much and so much entitlement and others with nothing.\u201d It is a recurring theme in our interview that Zara has pithy remarks for all my questions. Yet, when I press her, the speed of her responses gives me the impression that she has been asking herself the same things.<\/p>\n
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Zara applied to volunteer with a community organization in Greece, but was unsuccessful. She then found Roots on Instagram. \u201cI emailed Sarah my CV, and she said yeah, that\u2019s great.\u201d Sarah Berry is the Treasurer of Roots. \u201cIt was all sorted within two hours of emailing her.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Roots is unique among aid organizations in northern France because it provides its volunteers and coordinators with a communal living space. \u201cWe were all in this warehouse, and it had been renovated, so it was these little box rooms with two sets of bunks in each\u201d, Zara explains. The Roots warehouse is on an industrial estate comprised of other gated warehouses and scrap heaps. Even in July, I remember it being dark and damp. At the top of a spiral staircase sticking out of one end of the warehouse is a loft. Inside, I found volunteers making cups of tea in a wood-floored kitchen while the coordinators made plans in their office. \u201cOn our days off, we all hung out together. And I do think that grated on the four volunteer coordinators because they had to behave in their roles even at home.\u201d The Roots website explains that volunteer coordinators are \u201cexperienced and qualified individuals\u201d who are \u201cdedicated to ensuring that the services we deliver at the camp are dignified and sustainable.\u201d Zara explains, \u201cIt was the social stuff that made me tweak because you can process the coordinator who you\u2019re exchanging microaggressions with. So that was what I was crying on the phone to my mum about, not all the other stuff.\u201d The Roots website also says, \u201c[the coordinators] are at the camp every day to ensure that volunteers are comfortable, and the displaced individuals have a familiar face to approach with questions.\u201d When I asked her how she felt about the living situation, however, Zara had no regrets. \u201cThe accommodation was a massive plus and why I chose to go to Roots\u2014I wouldn\u2019t have been able to afford it if my accommodation hadn\u2019t been covered.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Still, Zara does tell me that a couple of weeks after I visited Roots, there was an \u201cimplosion\u201d at Roots. Izzy Redmayne, a 24-year-old English aupair working in France, arrived to volunteer at Roots soon after my visit. \u201cMe and Zara were really\u2026 we were basically inseparable. We just shared one brain cell the entire time that we were together. It was really important to me because I felt like everyone hated me\u201d, Izzy explained. The trouble started, Izzy continued, on her first day during a briefing when she was told that she must not speak to any journalists. When Izzy then told them she had started writing articles for a French paper, it was \u201creally, really badly received.\u201d She explains, \u201cThe whole reason I didn’t think to mention it before was because I was just like this random girl running around France asking people what they thought of Le Pen\u2026 I realized that was a mistake because I knew in myself I wasn’t gonna write anything.\u201d Izzy told me that after this, she was only allowed to work in the warehouse preparing aid packets filled with hygiene products and refilling the water tanks that Roots maintains around the area migrants. \u201cPeople did talk to me, but, like, only to call me a narc.\u201d Not long after Izzy arrived, the four coordinators resigned. \u201cThe coordinators kind of set the tone for let’s all ostracize this girl. So after they left, things got a bit calmer.\u201d When I asked how things improved, Izzy explained, \u201cZara is such a charmer and so popular. And so I think it really helped me to kind of have that vote of confidence from her. It meant that other people were much more accepting of me because I kind of was attached to Zara. And everyone loved Zara because she’s just amazing.\u201d \ufffcZara does not want to discuss the episode beyond relating the facts and connecting me with Izzy, with whom she is still in regular contact.<\/p>\n
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Although she acknowledges she might not have processed them at the time, Zara tells me that there were very challenging moments working with the migrants in the field in addition to the drama going on inside the warehouse. On July 29th, days after I visited Roots, a 17-year-old boy armed with a knife attacked a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England. Three girls under the age of 10 were killed. Nine more children and two adults were injured. Following the attack, misinformation about the identity of the attacker spread online. News website \u201cChannel 3 Now\u201d falsely claimed that the attacker was a Muslim, undocumented migrant who had arrived in the UK on a boat from France. In the wake of such misinformation, riots started across the UK. In Rotherham, South Yorkshire, a mob of rioters tried to storm and set fire to the Holiday Inn Express, a hotel housing asylum seekers whose claims were waiting to be heard. A 27-year-old British man has since pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life and has been sentenced to nine years in prison. \u201cDuring the riots, there was lots of stuff online where the far-right would be threatening to come across on the ferries\u201d, Zara tells me. \u201cWe would have a lot of cars circling.\u201d When I asked her what she meant by this, she explained that members of the \u201cfar right\u201d would drive on the roads around the distribution site in loops. \u201cSometimes there would be too many cars circling around the lot, and the coordinators would be, like, this is sort of unsafe\u201d, Zara laughs. \u201cThe Red Cross left that day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The far right was not the only source of danger to Roots volunteers or migrants, however. \u201cThere were also times where there were shots fired, and we had to leave,\u201d Zara says. Izzy echoed what Zara told me about the gunshots, saying it \u201chappened a few times.\u201d She continued, \u201cbeing right in the middle of camps surrounded by all these people with gunshots really quite close. Like, close to the point where the coordinator was saying, woah. That’s close. Does anyone wanna leave?\u201d Izzy summarised, \u201cIt was quite an intense day.\u201d Focus on smuggling gangs has increased since the election of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose slogan for combatting illegal migration to the UK is \u201csmash the gangs\u201d. Earlier this year, BBC investigative reporter Sue Mitchell and former aid worker Rob Lawrie released \u201cTo Catch a Scorpion\u201d a podcast series in which they tracked the notorious head of a smuggling gang that operates in Dunkirk to Iraq. Following the release of the series, Barzan Majeed was arrested by local police in Iraq. \u201cOne of the new girls came and said it was really cute how those South Sudanese guys would walk around with their best friends when actually I don\u2019t know, it was probably the case they were in a gang together. But she was like, it\u2019s so cute that they\u2019re besties. It was really funny at the time.\u201d Back in July, Zara pointed out to me how certain migrants were allowed to skip the line to receive aid, likely because of a smuggling gang connection. When I asked her if her proximity to organised crime and the gunshots scared her, Zara says they did not. \u201cI didn\u2019t find that aspect challenging. There\u2019s a lot of traveller communities where I live and they would have their personal beef, but I had no part in it because I\u2019m not a traveller.\u201d She tells me about two families with \u201cmajor beef.\u201d She explained, \u201cI could interact with either of them, but I could interact with either of them because I had no skin in the game.\u201d Zara also tells me about another incident she remembers that is harder to place in any specific context. \u201cThere was also this guy who was walking around swinging a tent pole, so we had to cancel water distribution one day. He had glued a Gilette razor to the end. Like arts and crafts.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Out of everything that happened in her month with Roots, Zara seems to suggest that what she still thinks about most often is her interactions with a migrant child. \u201cThere was this girl who was very clingy, but she wanted to be lifted onto the table and touching any of the kids is a big no-no. One of the coordinators was like you should instil a bit of \u2018stranger danger\u2019, but I find it hard to be mean to children; call me evil. I didn\u2019t discourage it. I\u2019m a big softie. I\u2019m a horrible babysitter.\u201d Zara pauses for a while before continuing, \u201cShe went missing at a certain point. No, there was a child that went missing, and we don\u2019t know if that child was ever found or if it was her. But I never saw her again, and I never saw her family again. And I worry a lot that the family made the crossing. They had lots of children, and I don\u2019t know what I would do in that situation. I\u2019m not a mother. I don\u2019t know what my mother would do in that situation. The way that it works with the crossing is that you\u2019re given no notice. You\u2019re just told we\u2019re going today and you have to, you know, make moves. I just think about it a lot. If she\u2019d just been left or trafficked somewhere\u2026\u201d The tone of our interview changes when Zara starts talking about the child. There is no hint of mirth in her voice anymore. \u201cI was on water refilling that day, so I left early, and then the volunteers told me a kid was missing. I don\u2019t know it was her, though. There were lots of kids..\u201d She trails off. \u201cIn my head because I\u2019m not rational. I just worry that it is her and that it\u2019s my fault. I never saw that family again. I didn\u2019t teach her the stranger enough. I think about that a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plight of migrant children in Northern France has been an ongoing concern of aid organizations since migrants started to gather in increasing numbers on the French coast in 2015. In 2016, after the eviction of the Calais \u201cJungle\u201d migrant encampment, Reuters reported that roughly one third of the 179 migrant children tracked by aid organizations had gone missing. In 2021, Human Rights Watch released a report on the French Police\u2019s practice of regular evictions of migrant encampments that called on child protection authorities in France \u201cto do more to give [unaccompanied migrant children] as full sense as possible of the range of options available to them\u201d in the context of trafficking being \u201cwidely thought to be a concern\u201d in Grande-Synthe. Traffickers aside, the environment itself is hazardous to children in Grande-Synthe. I saw so myself on my visit when one of the Roots coordinators run shouting and waving onto the nearby train tracks to grab a migrant child who had set up a small tent between the rails, oblivious to the oncoming train. Anything could have happened to the child Zara is talking about.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Zara found it hard to leave Roots when her month was up. She had to return home before starting her semester abroad in California. I get the sense from our conversation that there was some guilt tied up in how she felt when it was time to leave. Eventually, she says, \u201cI don\u2019t think it actually matters if it’s morally pure or not. Your outcomes only matter.\u201d She continues, \u201cWe can\u2019t all be selfless all the time.\u201d and goes on to say, \u201cI still read the Guardian and follow the topic.\u201d Even though she has now left France, she still finds herself being contacted by migrants. She explains, \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to find my instagram. I\u2019ve got a lot of dms from people who\u2019ve made the crossing, and they say, \u2018oh I\u2019d love to know someone here,\u2019 and I just haven\u2019t responded to any of them because I feel weird about the whole thing.\u201d There is another long pause after she says this. \u201cMy poor friends had to listen to me cry and talk about these things.\u201d Zara starts laughing again.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt seemed vaguely productive\u201d, Zara explains when I asked her why she volunteered with Roots, a humanitarian organization in Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk. \u201cI do study politics, so I write about these things in the abstract, but I thought it could be nice to get involved in that way. There\u2019s only so many summers of uni left.\u201d<\/p>\n