No one wants to enter illegally, but right now they feel they have no choice (Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Celebrate it or hate it, Brexit is here following nearly four years of debate in which Calais played a key part, after the plight of refugees was weaponised to convince people to vote a certain way. So now it’s arrived, what will the effect on refugees living there be?

People are wrong if they assume that Brexit means that the number of refugees seeking safety on our shores will rapidly decline. In fact, the greatest impact of Brexit is on migrants coming from countries inside the EU, like Poland or Romania, whereas refugees in Calais come from outside Europe, mostly from Africa and Middle East.



This means that any new restrictions on EU migrants claiming benefits or coming to work in the UK won’t affect Calais refugees as they have never been able to claim these benefits or come to work easily here anyway.

What will affect refugees in Calais is when certain EU laws stop applying to the UK. This is likely to be when the ‘transitional period’ ends in December 2020. Two areas are key for Calais refugees.


The first relates to unaccompanied refugee children in Europe. Current UK law allows a lone child in Europe to be reunited with a parent in the UK but does not allow them to join any other relatives.

EU law is more flexible and will allow a child to join relatives including grandparents, brother or sister, aunt or uncle. Unless a change is made, at the end of 2020, we will only have UK rules relating to parents.

Hundreds of refugee children who are alone in Europe, many of whom may be orphans, will not be able to reach the only family they have left who are in the UK. Charities are working to encourage the government to change this and have started a petition.

Individuals who have next to nothing were woken in the early hours and moved on, their meagre possessions destroyed, with many left standing desolate in the rain (Picture: Philippe HUGUEN / AFP via Getty Images)

The second is the principle that Sajid Javid quoted so many times when he was home secretary: the idea that a refugee should claim asylum in the ‘first safe county’ in the EU in which they arrive.

While this is not entirely accurate, the ‘Dublin principle’ is an important part of EU refugee law. Unless a new agreement is reached with the EU, the UK may cease to be part of this system and will no longer be able to ‘send people back’ once the transitional period ends.

However, despite the fuss Mr Javid made about this, the UK only actually ‘sent back’ 209 people in 2018. This is because the rules are actually rather more complicated than Mr Javid would have had us believe.

In general, the UK government’s response to the situation in Calais focuses on increased security and deterrence. Just this week, in the run up to Brexit, we’ve seen yet more fences being built and some particularly brutal evictions from areas where people sleep rough.



Individuals who have next to nothing were woken in the early hours and moved on, their meagre possessions destroyed, with many left standing desolate in the rain.

This approach is based on the government’s belief that if you make life hard enough for people, they will stop coming. The failure in this theory is that the things refugees are running away from – wars, torture, persecution – will always be worse than anything you can create.

They don’t want to come; they simply have no choice. Repeated evidence shows that the only impact of increased security and evictions is brutalisation of already traumatised people; watching it happen, to me, it feels like bullying.

And the final, practical, effect of Brexit? Transport companies have warned of gridlock around ports when we leave the Customs Union in December 2020. There’s been debate over how bad this will be, but with 2.5million lorries passing through the port every year, very little would need to go wrong before long tail backs occur.

No one wants to enter illegally, but right now they feel they have no choice. One of the few ways to do that: on the back of a lorry. The best time to try: when the lorry is standing still.

The biggest issue we have in Calais is the lack of a safe and legal routes for people to claim asylum in the UK. It’s time for the UK government to come up with some practical solutions and show that we’re a compassionate country with the capacity to help some of the most vulnerable people in the world.


Care4Calais is a volunteer run charity delivering essential aid and support to refugees living in the worst conditions across Northern France and Belgium. We believe in a fair and tolerant British society and advocate for a welcoming and inclusive attitude towards refugees.

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