Help Refugees UK / L'Auberge Des Migrants

Who we are

Help Refugees runs the biggest aid operation in northern France alongside our partners L’Auberge des Migrants, Refugee Youth Service, Refugee Community Kitchen, Utopia56 and Refugee Info Bus, Refugee Women and Children's Centre and School Bus Project. Since summer 2015, over 16,000 volunteers have been part of this; doing the work of a big NGO but with a fraction of the budget.

Despite the eviction of the Calais ‘Jungle’ in October 2016 and the Dunkirk/Grande Synthe camp burning down in April 2017, there are still around 1,500 refugees sleeping rough in the forests, streets and industrial estates of northern France. The youngest unaccompanied minor in Calais is currently just nine years old. We are providing blankets, clothes, food and water, legal and asylum information, Wifi and specific support for women and children, as well as advocacy and legal challenges to the breaches in human rights that we witness here. To do this we need around 80 enthusiastic volunteers a day to help in our warehouse and keep our operations going.

As a grassroots movement, without salaried volunteers on the ground, we cannot survive to provide the help and advocacy that is needed without volunteers who can commit to longer periods of time. We advertise roles on Charity Jobs to try and encourage applicants who are interested in performing responsible and coordination roles, are interested in learning and developing skills in the grassroots, humanitarian and human rights sectors and who want to be part of a direct response against injustice and the breaching of human rights of refugees in Europe today. 
Volunteers are the response to the refugee crisis in Europe, and we desperately need more help.