The closure of the Calais WASH Centre

On 18th March 2024, the Collective Aid WASH Centre in Calais received a notice from the city, forcing it into administrative closure. Within an hour, services stopped and service users left the centre with no clear answer on when the centre would be able to reopen. This closure has resulted in yet another barrier to sanitation services for people on the move, something that France was already criticised for by United Nations human rights experts in their 2018 Universal Periodic Review, who urged France to “increase efforts” to provide these services. Despite completing all required modifications to the WASH Centre, it is still closed with no confirmed date for reopening.

The Calais WASH Centre with signs letting service users know it is closed.

The WASH centre provided laundry services to 84 people per week in Calais, and can hold 144 people a week as a day centre. From its opening on 6th March 2023, in that year alone it provided 2,138 people with access to services and support, and washed 1,364 loads of laundry. There is no provision of state-run linen hygiene facilities in Calais; this temporary halt in operations from the only provider of free laundry services means that service users will have to either hand wash their clothing, or pay to access a laundrette. The day centre Secours Catholique operates a hybrid system of “spin dryers”, which requires washing clothes by hand and then using semi-manual spin-drying machines.

Clothes hanging up to dry in the rain at a living site.

“I washed my clothes in the jungle two days ago, but it’s not clean. They’re not dry because it rained.”

Anonymous testimonial

The ability to dry clothes is something that is so normalised to many people that it would not occur to them to consider it a privilege. The reality is that without being adequately dried, clothes can quickly become unusable. Damp clothes can exacerbate skin conditions, infections, or even cause hypothermia. As of April 2024, Collective Aid has had to stop distributing the vast majority of its non-food item stock, leaving Care4Calais as the only mass distributor of clothing to people on the move in Calais. In a context where clothing insecurity is already prevalent, access to laundry services allows people to preserve the clothing they already have. 

Obstruction to water access

The closure of the WASH Centre compounds an already significant problem in Calais: the access to water. The zero point of fixation policy that sees living sites evicted every 48 hours - which results in theft of belongings, arrests, and distress (both anticipatory and actualised) - extends to a negligent provision of essential services, making living conditions as degrading as possible in an attempt to deter people from staying in Calais and attempting to cross the Channel. The state-funded medico-social organisation, La Vie Active, has been contracted to meet water and sanitation needs by providing drinking water and showering facilities since 2018. They run shuttle buses to showers 5 days a week, and distribute 5L jerry cans of water every day of the week - but these distributions are not accessible from every living site. 

“[We wash our clothes] by hand at Secours Catholique or sometimes in the jungle, but there is no water there, no water tanks are delivered.”

Anonymous testimonial

The main water supplier to living sites in Calais is not one established by the government. It is Calais Food Collective (CFC), a grassroots collective who fill 1,000 litre intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) multiple times a day with water that people on the move use for everything from drinking and cooking, to washing their clothes. CFC maintains 10 water points across the city, and in 2023 provided over 1.5 million litres of water. In March of 2024 alone they provided around 200,890 litres. Organisations operating in Calais do so in a criminalised setting where, despite having ostensibly accepted the UN’s recommendation of guaranteeing access to water and sanitation services in October 2023, the provision of water is an act to be deterred. CFC faces significant obstruction to the delivery of their services, from both state and non-state actors. They've received parking fines while temporarily pulled over to fill IBCs, and in 2023 they had 9 IBCs removed. In 2024, they have already had a further 2 IBCs removed, including one taken on either the 5th or 6th March, less than a week before the start of Ramadan. 

An IBC at one of the living sites in Calais.

La Vie Active, with their limited distribution sites, is fundamentally unable to meet the need for water. In October 2023 CFC installed an IBC at a living site of approximately 80 people, an hour's walk from La Vie Active’s closest distribution site. In November 2023, a CFC volunteer witnessed people who live in the city centre of Calais drinking water from the river. They swiftly installed a new IBC in the centre, and returned the next day to find it being removed by the local authorities “by order of the town hall”. While CFC were able to place an IBC in a different location in the city centre that people are able to access, it is imperative to explicitly state that the state is complicit in the denial of one of the most basic human rights. 

Impact on health

The policy of zero points of fixation impacts health both through the aggressive enforcement of 48 hour evictions, and by blocking access to WASH services. The First Aid Support Team (FAST) states that people frequently mention having medication and medical equipment taken during evictions, including one diabetic individual who had his blood glucose monitor stolen when the police took the rest of his belongings. The obstruction to water is part of the same policy, and causes significant healthcare concerns. Dehydration puts people at risk of renal conditions, gastrointestinal issues, and electrolyte imbalances that can cause heart problems. People frequently present with headaches and dry and cracked skin, which then leaves them open to infection. 

The lack of adequate sanitation and laundry facilities exacerbates widespread health problems caused by the poor living conditions that the communities in Calais are forced into. FAST report seeing huge numbers of dermatological and allergy problems that are worsened or caused by poor access to sanitation. Scabies, a parasitic skin infestation caused by mites burrowing into the skin and laying eggs, is a hugely common affliction that the team sees. The condition can be debilitating, interrupting sleep and indiscriminately affecting adults and children alike. While the skin can be treated with medication, being able to shower and do laundry are critical to scabies treatment. The only way to eradicate the mite from clothes is by washing the affected items in hot water and drying them using a hot cycle. The Collective Aid WASH Centre was the only location in Calais providing this service for free. Damp clothes also present a range of issues, from hypothermia to fungal infections like athletes foot. FAST regularly treat such infections, only for the patient to have no other option but to return their feet to damp socks and shoes. 

These problems could be easily avoided if the state chose to adequately fulfil their obligation to provide sufficient access to WASH services. Instead, they force people to live in inhumane environments for the sake of a political agenda.

WASH services are vital for both physical and mental health. If you would like to contribute to the reopening of the Calais WASH Centre, donate here.

Words and Photos by Emma Richardson