On Sunday we took advantage of a rare opportunity to give a bully a well-deserved bloody nose, while reaching out a hand in solidarity to the bullied. Some clever friends of ours had spotted a £1 ferry crossing deal with P&O, which meant that we were able to take part in what felt like the ultimate win-win: travelling to the Calais migrant camps to take humanitarian aid at the Daily Mail’s expense.

Imagine a life where a squalid, freezing campsite with the threat of arrest, assault or death was always the best option

The Daily Mail is notorious for pillorying the poorest in society: squatters, socialists, single mothers and asylum seekers. Walking into the Tioxide camp – named after the chemical plant that it has sprung up alongside – is enough to instantly pierce the negative stereotypes that the media are so adept at delivering. The migrant camps in Calais don’t even have refugee status, they’re considered illegal by the French government. As a consequence, the camp we visited has no access to running water or sanitation. It has power – spread through endless chains of scavenged extension cords – once a day, when some local volunteers bring in a generator for a few hours. All of the camps, and their occupants, are routinely turned over by the local gendarmes.

Our crossing was rough both there and back because of a vicious northerly wind blowing all day. The camps are mainly handmade – tied together with bits of string – and the UN has condemned the conditions as “totally unacceptable and not consistent with the kind of values that a democratic society should have”. The most popular items we took were gloves and dominoes, because of the bitter cold and the sheer boredom that comes as a consequence of being a human being with no legal status. Fifteen people, including women and children, have died in the past year out of desperation for asylum. Sadly, it seems almost certain that more will die in these freezing conditions.

‘The camp we visited has no access to running water or sanitation.’ Photograph: Strike

Even if you believe in completely closed borders, once these migrants have navigated past your imaginary lines, you can’t simply deny their existence and hope they go away. Even if you send police squads in to break their bones with batons, they still won’t: they have nowhere to go and nothing to return to. You may believe that this is somehow their choice – but imagine a life where a squalid, freezing campsite and the ever-present danger of arrest, assault or death on an attempted crossing-gone-wrong, was always your best option.

One of the things we were struck by was how little it would take to alleviate such gross human suffering, to give people with no better options some dignity. Does anyone really believe they’re being fed by Michelin-star chefs? A small change in status, accompanied by a small change in attitudes and a little human kindness, would mean that none of us have to live with the shame of a migrant camp on our doorstep. We could very easily meet all of the migrants’ needs just on the waste and leftovers from our capitalist societies: currently, it’s deemed illegal to collectively do so.

‘Fifteen people, including women and children, have died in the past year out of desperation for asylum.’ Photograph: Strike

Of course, such a change would mean the British and French governments would then have to ensure that all of their own citizens were adequately housed, clothed and fed – that our basic needs were met. The likes of Nigel Farage and a rising tide of nationalists across the continent are not wrong when they say that an entire European political class is failing its citizens in this respect. It has been failing its citizens in this way long before it dreamt up “austerity”. That anyone should blame those people perched precariously on the edge of the port of Calais – as opposed to the rich European leaders roaming around our capital cities in chauffeur-driven, bullet-proof limousines that we all paid for – seems particularly absurd to us the day after our visit.

The vagaries of globalised capitalism have landed some sort of strange sub-refugee camp right on our doorstep. You can hide behind nationalism, point fingers or pretend it isn’t happening – or you can start thinking about solutions. In the meantime, it is very easy indeed – thanks, in part, to the Daily Mail’s humanitarian largesse – to do something simple to help your fellow human beings. Nobody wants to inhabit a world with migrant camps – nobody more so than the inhabitants of those camps.