Wellywood Woman

Child in Calais This updates an earlier post about film activist Sue Clayton’s work with, and film about, unaccompanied children and young people who are refugees on the coast of France, trying to get to Britain. The film is partly for use as evidence in upcoming court cases and an inquiry. Daniel, a 9-year old orphan from Eritrea, had the right to be in Britain, because he had close family there. But he was sleeping in a damp and dangerous lean-to in the Calais Jungle, regularly subject to tear-gas attacks and violence from the CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité, the general reserve of the French national police force). And his his voice was not being heard. Then, filmmaker Sue Clayton and her colleagues provided legal representation to protect his immediate future. Daniel is now safely with his older brother in Britain, in care. But many others weren't so lucky. Sue's film began with her exploration of whether the children of Calais had a legal case t...

Sue Clayton in the Calais Jungle camp Director Sue Clayton is perhaps best known for her award-winning Hamedullah: The Road Home , about the forced removal of young people from the United Kingdom (UK) to Kabul and for her archive of interviews with young asylum seekers in the UK and her work with a team researching best outcomes for young asylum seekers . Today, she’s in the vast refugee camp called ‘the Jungle’ in Calais, northern France, which acts as a border to the UK. According to Sue, it is 'not an official camp. It’s run by about 100 young volunteers, mainly untrained, and no infrastructure at all’.  In a few hours,  the French will begin to demolish the camp and scatter its occupants all over France, in buses. Sue is focusing on the over 1000 unaccompanied children and  young  people in the camp,  the 'unaccompanied minors',  who live in cold tents with no food or power. She is finding as many as possible, making  making C...