The camp in Dunkirk was made up of around two thousand people of whom most were Kurdish refugees fleeing persecution in Iraq and Syria, where they faced ethnic cleansing. The camp was in a public park near a shopping mall, nearly all the refugees lodged in camping tents that lay over a field covered with mud, there was barely any running or drinking water, there were no hot showers, Chemical toilets were placed too little too late and there was only a hand full of garbage dumps. Garbage collection was sluggish, causing the proliferation of rats, that lived under the refugees’ tents and scavenged through the garbage that piled up everywhere. There were only two citizens organizations that worked in the camp to try to fill the enormous hole left by the neglect of the French government, they distributed basic supplies such as tents, blankets and some clothe. The makeshift Kitchen set up by one of the organizations gave out a limited ration of warm food that was not nearly enough to feed all the refugees.
© Daniel Botelho
