There must be millions of people of all political persuasions, and of none, across the UK, who would not only take no exception to so much as a word of Yvette Cooper’s piece (Opinion, 7 January) on potential solutions to the unconscionable disgrace of the refugee camps at Calais and Dunkirk, but who would, in fact, enthusiastically endorse her call for the government to sign up to Save the Children’s cross-party plan to extract 3,000 abandoned refugee children in Europe – including those at Calais – from their intolerable misery, without further delay. I hope hers will be the voice in the wilderness that, once heard, finally ends the inexplicable British-French inaction to which she refers, and so rightly criticises.
Stephen Williams
Peacehaven, East Sussex
• Jonathan Freedland mentions L’Auberge des Migrants in his poignant article (In the bleakness of the camp at Calais, a light shines out, 26 December). Working closely with them, one of the British groups is Hummingbird, a Brighton-based group which regularly sends volunteers, shelters, medical help, food and much more to the Calais refugee camp. Find them on Facebook if you want to help in any way. Volunteering is, however, by no means straightforward. The French and UK governments are not only turning their backs on the refugees, they actively hinder the voluntary aid that these groups are trying to provide. The French authorities regularly stop volunteers from entering the camps; they prevent them taking in tents, or ban their erection. Volunteers have to be very confident and calm to deal with this. It is a mark of their resilience, and the refugees’ terrible need, that most volunteers return again and again. My daughter and grandson are there now; it is her third visit. After each she has to debrief, and we rant and cry; and then she goes back.
The more people know about what is happening, the more chance we have of shaming our UK government into treating these refugees, who are just a few miles away across the Channel, as people in desperate need.
Penny Avant
Christow, Devon
• Where has the British spirit of humanity and welcome gone? This country has been enriched by refugees throughout hundreds of years – Huguenots, Vietnamese, Ugandan Asians, for example – who have also contributed to the economy. Many, including Quakers, sponsored Jewish children and families before the second world war, providing homes and a new start. Why can’t we do so now for Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan war refugees? We know the appalling conditions they had to leave behind, and the even worse position they are now in; we cannot leave them trapped at Calais over the winter. Doing nothing is not an option.
Rachel Davies
Salisbury, Wiltshire
• Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the royal family took in at least one family of Syrian refugees at Buckingham Palace? Heaven knows, they have the room for it and it might even inspire others to act in a similarly humane, not to mention Christian, way.
Angela Randle
Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire
• You can donate to the Guardian charity refugee appeal here
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
