Allegations of widespread sexual exploitation of Calais migrants by British volunteers

[Wilf]

Reputable aid agencies do ban it .

And you can never be sure something is entirely consensual when there's such a major power imbalance . One is a recipient of aid, one is a donor . Something you either can't or won't get your head around . Plainly people going there off their own bat in the first place is one issue at the root of this .

And I think I made perfectly clear in my posts nothing can be done about it and that yes indeed, life is like that . Which led to me being accused of sensationalism and racism .

FFS, why do you do this? I've made that exact point - on this very thread.

 

[Wilf]

Casually Red, if you want my considered opinion on this, there are good reasons why relationships between 6th formers and teachers and various social workers, therapists and clients are seen as inherently exploitative. I'd say relationships between aid workers and refugees get pretty close to that - and may well be in the vast majority of cases (and all cases involving the young and vulnerable). However it's just possible to imagine situations where adults meet, things that weren't planned happen etc.

 

[Casually Red]

No, I don't think so. FWIW I don't think even informal volunteers should be having relationships in the camps, full stop. I just think it's somewhat different to a schools or social services situation. Yes, most adult refugees will be in a situation of vulnerability - and so have the potential to be abused. That's why I'm against it. Suppose I'm really putting it the other way round. Adult refugees have their own agency and should be able to make their own choices. I could at least perceive of circumstances of a non-exploitative relationship - whilst seeing the whole thing as, at the very least, massively problematic.

Everyone can conceive of circumstances were it could conceivably be consensual. Even amongst teachers and pupils over the age of consent . Between prison guards and inmates . They have their own agency as well .
However given the obvious power imbalance the vast majority of those cases won't be consensual. And therefore by the same token neither will these . Which sort of confuses me as to why your making such a song and dance sticking up for the few occasions were it might be .

 

[Wilf]

Everyone can conceive of circumstances were it could conceivably be consensual. Even amongst teachers and pupils over the age of consent . Between prison guards and inmates . They have their own agency as well .
However given the obvious power imbalance the vast majority of those cases won't be consensual. And therefore by the same token neither will these . Which sort of confuses me as to why your making such a song and dance sticking up for the few occasions were it might be .

I'm not 'sticking up for it', even the fully consensual encounters. I'm just making the point that there will be a small number of genuinely consensual encounters between volunteers and refugees, largely female volunteers according to the piece, and that they might not sit in quite the same category as sex with underage children (also reported in the story). Most of all though, the point made earlier, that we don't have enough information to make simple judgements.

 

[Casually Red]

It's worth stating the obvious that any charity effort like this, with inequalities of power, has the potential for abuse, even significant abuse. But what has actually happened is a different matter and might not lend itself to easy conclusions. What I didn't get from scanning the piece amid my internet crashing twice, was whether there was an allegation of some sort of' exchange' (actual payment, fake offers of citizenship etc.). Without that, you might just have people in very difficult situations, but still something that is consensual.

It's perfectly obvious that someone who depends on charity to keep food in their stomach and clothes on their back will be pretty desperate to keep the distributor of that charity happy . Nothing needs to be said, no formal offer of exchange needs to be made for christs sake . Similarly people so desperate to get to Britain they'd risk death hiding in an engine compartment will be extremely vulnerable to any sexual approach by a British citizen . Again no formal promise or exchange needs to occur . There's an implication by the mere fact of the power imbalance and the extreme desperation of the migrants situation . a migrant might well, very reasonably, see something very different in what a volunteer might regard as a normal casual encounter . See an opportunity for a new life .

Can't understand for the life of me your insistence that something different might be happening . We know due to the vast imbalance in equality the vast majority of the time it'll be exploitation . And on the few occasions it genuinely isn't it's still completely unprofessional and only contributing to the wider exploitation .

 

[Casually Red]

If you believe this you'll believe anything. It's just an attempt to undermine the image of charity workers at Calais. "Look at these slags sleeping with multiple men every day. Brown men too. The filthy whores". Pathetic stuff.

 

[likesfish]

well this is a perfect story to undermine the image of charity workers at Calais.

but if you are fucking refugees either as an official or unofficial aid worker its abuse and drives a truck through all notions of safeguarding .
you want to play master and slave join an S&M community .
Not only is your relationship dodgy it endangers other people and the whole aid effort

 

[Wilf]

It's perfectly obvious that someone who depends on charity to keep food in their stomach and clothes on their back will be pretty desperate to keep the distributor of that charity happy . Nothing needs to be said, no formal offer of exchange needs to be made for christs sake . Similarly people so desperate to get to Britain they'd risk death hiding in an engine compartment will be extremely vulnerable to any sexual approach by a British citizen . Again no formal promise or exchange needs to occur . There's an implication by the mere fact of the power imbalance and the extreme desperation of the migrants situation . a migrant might well, very reasonably, see something very different in what a volunteer might regard as a normal casual encounter . See an opportunity for a new life .

Can't understand for the life of me your insistence that something different might be happening . We know due to the vast imbalance in equality the vast majority of the time it'll be exploitation . And on the few occasions it genuinely isn't it's still completely unprofessional and only contributing to the wider exploitation .

This is getting tiresome. I've been very clear that relations between aid workers and refugees will go from massively exploitative (and even illegal if under age) - abuse - to at best highly problematic. Only point I've made is that in a contested story we don't have enough information to assume such abuse is widespread or that the circumstances are entirely as described. You however have had no difficulty in accepting this as a story of predatory female sex abusers - with the whistle blowing male being shouted down. It might be entirely that, but we don't know.

 

[Casually Red]

This is getting tiresome. I've been very clear that relations between aid workers and refugees will go from massively exploitative (and even illegal if under age) - abuse - to at best highly problematic. Only point I've made is that in a contested story we don't have enough information to assume such abuse is widespread or that the circumstances are entirely as described. You however have had no difficulty in accepting this as a story of predatory female sex abusers - with the whistle blowing male being shouted down. It might be entirely that, but we don't know.

I'm not aware of anyone actually contesting the story . They've interviewed a proper charity in Calais that employs professional guidelines for its staff and they agree there seems to be a serious problem there .
One of the posts abusing the whistleblower as a racist and sexist for calling the abuse out admits its happening but denies its harmful . Other posts referred to in the article agree something of that nature has occurred .
Besides this thread I haven't seen anyone contest it . And on this thread I haven't seen anyone contest it with any argument bar a couple of conspiracy theories and a smattering of ignorant abuse . So right now there's nothing contested about it that I'm aware of . All I can see is some wagons circled in blind defence of the cause . Which is predictable , kneejerk human behaviour when potentially damaging or embarassing scandals occur . Particularly of this nature .

 

[Wilf]

I'm not aware of anyone actually contesting the story . They've interviewed a proper charity in Calais that employs professional guidelines for its staff and they agree there seems to be a serious problem there .
One of the posts abusing the whistleblower as a racist and sexist for calling the abuse out admits its happening but denies its harmful . Other posts referred to in the article agree something of that nature has occurred .
Besides this thread I haven't seen anyone contest it . And on this thread I haven't seen anyone contest it with any argument bar a couple of conspiracy theories and a smattering of ignorant abuse . So right now there's nothing contested about it that I'm aware of . All I can see is some wagons circled in blind defence of the cause . Which is predictable , kneejerk human behaviour when potentially damaging or embarassing scandals occur . Particularly of this nature .

Which cause is that CR?

 

[weltweit]

It is a depressing state of affairs when stories like this surface. I was listening earlier to a program about people abusing the elderly in their care homes. Utterly appalling.

 

[frogwoman]

To be honest I am not at all surprised if something like this has happened. It's happened in other situations with charity workers, UN peacekeepers as well as closer to home in care homes, hospitals, etc. These people will be very vulnerable and dependent on others goodwill due to the situation they have been placed in. Thats not at all the same as saying all charity workers are up to no good but let's not lie to ourselves here

 

[frogwoman]

Charity can be a cover for all sorts of really nasty shit - look at jimmy savile

I have no doubt that most people working there aren't up to anything like that but this needs to be investigated properly and not dismissed or else you run the risk of sounding like someone who says 'hes a national treaure look at all the money hes given to stoke mandeville'.

 

[free spirit]

The original person making the posts is no sock puppet, he was actually driving a load of aid out that he'd picked up from us from our Leeds Fest collections when he made the original post, and he's been involved for a fair amount of time.

The main organisations working on the ground all have codes of conduct on this, and have been making efforts to ensure all volunteers who register with them undergo training about it.

The site is a vaguely tolerated site, nobody is in charge, and nobody can ban someone from simply rocking up to the site and helping out how they choose to, and following whatever rules they feel like following, or none.

There are many pretty young, pretty naive volunteers who end up on the site in one way or another who firstly have probably not considered the potential consequences of their actions, and secondly don't necessarily have the same levels of power imbalance involved as would be the case with official NGO run refugee camps where those running the camps control all aspects of camp life. In some cases we're talking about 18-19 year old girls on summer holiday volunteering missions, sometimes music or arts related, or litter picking etc finding themselves in a very strange situation in a camp surrounded by thousands of mostly 18-30 year old single men from many different parts of the world who're mostly bored out of their minds most days. And many have little control over anything going on in the camp.

So in the majority of cases, while it's probably inadvisable, it's a lot more questionable about whether their actions are particularly abusive in the same way that would usually be the case with big NGO run refugee camps. Some are living and volunteering side by side with the refugees in the camp for weeks or months on end, and combined with stressful situations like this I'd be more surprised if there wasn't some level of sex going on than finding out that there is.

I suspect in some cases it would be the volunteer involved who ends up feeling the worst about what happened on camp rather than the male refugees involved. In at least one case a volunteer who met someone on the camp is now living with them in the UK - was this abuse?

Basically IMO there's a lot more grey areas involved than the black and white tone of the OP / article.

Not to condone underage sex or exploitative sexual relationships if they've happened.

I fully support the position of the main organisations working on the site in promoting codes of conduct to ask volunteers to maintain professional boundaries and not get involved in this way, for the good of the volunteers involved as much as the refugees. But ultimately if you're going to have thousands of single young men mixing day in day out with dozens / hundreds of young volunteers for months on end in this sort of environment then I doubt it's ever going to be possible to stop it happening entirely.

It's also a little too easy to criticise from the safety of an armchair (or a plush NGO office, while ignoring the fact that the NGO's being questioned in the article have done fuck all to help in Calais to my knowledge).

 

[frogwoman]

In every charity that I have worked or volunteered at they specifically warn against this type of thing and stress that boundaries should be upheld.

If CRB etc checks are minimal I wouldn't be surprised if this stuff was going on

 

[free spirit]

or in short, the real scandal here is that the camp is still there and has double the number of people in it that it did last year and that no solution has been found to stop 10,000 people including 1000 unaccompanied children being forced to live in those conditions and being largely reliant on the goodwill of inexperienced volunteers rather than well resourced government agencies or professional NGOs.

That's what's causing the real damage to those 10,000 people.

Also, last time the camp was cleared over 100 kids went missing never to be seen again, thousands have gone missing across Europe, so if we're to focus on potential sexual abuse of underage kids scandals then for me that would be where I'd think attention is most in need of being focussed.

Knowing some of the people running some of the kids areas on the site, I seriously doubt they'd be standing for reports of any volunteers abusing children on the site without taking action to stop them. It's when the kids vanish from the site without explanation and nobody hears from them again that we should really worry on that score IMO.

 

[free spirit]

In every charity that I have worked or volunteered at they specifically warn against this type of thing and stress that boundaries should be upheld.

If CRB etc checks are minimal I wouldn't be surprised if this stuff was going on

that's what's happening with the charities on site, but there's no control over who comes on to camp, there are dozens of small local groups sending van loads of aid over, groups organising arts projects, music projects, no borders ativists etc etc. alongside the more official organisations.

I've not been for a year, and gather the situation is a lot more together and organised in many ways than it was back then, but it's still a rag tag bunch of all sorts of volunteers coming from many different backgrounds from adhoc groups all over the UK and Europe involved alongside the few main organisations with warehouses etc that are trying to create some level of order from the chaos.

Basically if anyone wanted a case study of anarchy in action the jungle would be a good place to start.

 

[wiskey]

In every charity that I have worked or volunteered at they specifically warn against this type of thing and stress that boundaries should be upheld.

If CRB etc checks are minimal I wouldn't be surprised if this stuff was going on

Me too... And yet when my friend and I took a van load of stuff to one of the camps and worked on the site for a while earlier in the year we were working loosely under the direction of a local charity but were essentially left to our own devices, no 'training' was given and I mainly attached myself to a group of Dutch Buddhists. I imagine if we'd stayed longer we'd have been brought into the group but it was certainly not a cohesive entity with people giving out best practice guidelines.

 

[trashpony]

You've never expressed any interest in Calais or in refugees as far as I know. And yet, suddenly, you're really interested in their plight. Particularly if women are the abusers.

Anyone would think you had an agenda

 

[Wilf]

Thanks to the last few posts this discussion has become more measured, so I should probably leave this alone. However... Casually Red I'm still intrigued why you want to highlight gender in the way you do:

Unsurprisingly the whistleblower ...a male volunteer..was subjected to a tirade of abuse alleging sexism, racism etc for even raising the subject ? As usual anger by some and a desire to sweep abuse under the carpet

I also wonder which 'cause' it is you are referring to:

All I can see is some wagons circled in blind defence of the cause . Which is predictable , kneejerk human behaviour when potentially damaging or embarassing scandals occur . Particularly of this nature

 

[DotCommunist]

casually red on an agenda? Say it aint so! I for one am shocked and apalled that such a well respected poster might have his probity questioned. Fie, fie and shame upon all who question his motives.

 

[Casually Red]

Thanks to the last few posts this discussion has become more measured, so I should probably leave this alone. However... Casually Red I'm still intrigued why you want to highlight gender in the way you do:

I also wonder which 'cause' it is you are referring to:

Are you not intrigued about the wagons as well ? Are you casting doubt upon the existence of actual wagons ? You might as well if you're going to play some pissy little word games . As well as make a try for the moral high ground after some of the stuff you came out with earlier .

 

[Casually Red]

You've never expressed any interest in Calais or in refugees as far as I know. And yet, suddenly, you're really interested in their plight. Particularly if women are the abusers.

Anyone would think you had an agenda

Agenda ? It's certainly not fucking desperate refugees . Unlike some .

 

[SpookyFrank]

In every charity that I have worked or volunteered at they specifically warn against this type of thing and stress that boundaries should be upheld.

If CRB etc checks are minimal I wouldn't be surprised if this stuff was going on

Back before the guardianistas all rocked up in Calais back in spring of last year there was a clear ethos of activists not getting involved in any kind of relationships with migrants, because of vulnerability and the potential for all sorts of problems. Any time the 'don't get involved' rule was broken or the line got a bit fuzzy, trouble ensued for migrants and activists alike.

In one of their less charming schemes, the CRS (ubiquitous specialist riot police) were at one point telling men in the jungles that the female european activists in Calais were all prostitutes.

Couldn't say what the situation is like now, but I doubt people are getting the sort of training that's needed to help people deal with a stressful and bewildering situation.

 

[trashpony]

Agenda ? It's certainly not fucking desperate refugees . Unlike some .

Well I've never seen you give a shit that people don't have food or shelter. But all of a sudden you're desperately concerned about their welfare.

It seems a tad opportunistic

 

[SpookyFrank]

If under age children in particular are being sexually exploited and abused in such a systematic fashion that should be a matter for law enforcement .

Law enforcement have no interest in protecting the people in the Calais jungle. In fact the behaviour of the police and the authorities makes migrants more vulnerable, particularly to traffickers and pimps. Forcing everyone to live in one single space instead of the smaller settlements where people had half a chance of looking out for each other has been a catastrophe.

 

[Casually Red]

Well I've never seen you give a shit that people don't have food or shelter. But all of a sudden you're desperately concerned about their welfare.

It seems a tad opportunistic

I see. In order to think this type of stuff isn't on I have to pass some worthiness test of yours. Pity it's not the same for the wolves in sheeps clothing .

 

[Wilf]

Are you not intrigued about the wagons as well ? Are you casting doubt upon the existence of actual wagons ? You might as well if you're going to play some pissy little word games . As well as make a try for the moral high ground after some of the stuff you came out with earlier .

Well, if I'm playing word games, they are your words:

Unsurprisingly the whistleblower ...a male volunteer..was subjected to a tirade of abuse alleging sexism, racism etc for even raising the subject ? As usual anger by some and a desire to sweep abuse under the carpet

And on this thread I haven't seen anyone contest it with any argument bar a couple of conspiracy theories and a smattering of ignorant abuse . So right now there's nothing contested about it that I'm aware of . All I can see is some wagons circled in blind defence of the cause . Which is predictable , kneejerk human behaviour when potentially damaging or embarassing scandals occur . Particularly of this natur

 

[Casually Red]

Well, if I'm playing word games, they are your words:

Your going to need to explain this to me . Explain to me why describing a male volunteer as a male , who was demonised as a sexist for calling this behaviour out is not ok ? How is it remotely bad ? The guy was on the receiving end of accusations of sexism simply for raising this issue. He was demonised. Just like you're attempting now .

Also explain to me how referring to the cause of migrant welfare as the cause is a bad thing as well ? It's a fucking cause like any other ? How is it not ?

What exactly are the grounds you are trying to construct for your inevitable , massively telegraphed attempt at a dirty tackle from behind ?

 

[Treacle Toes]

He was demonised.

No he wasn't, that's you believing the spin of the article. You see some of us actually read and participated in that conversation. The person who started the thread was supported by those who agreed with him, others didn't... It was a discussion on facebook, not a court hearing or employment tribunal ffs. The journo is a member of the group and took the bits of the convo that she felt important to 'her' article.

Regardless, given your attempts to exaggerate the contents of the article, and accuse people who are asking you to clarify your position I am struggling to trust that this conversation is worth getting involved in. People here have already tried to get you to calm down and understand the obvious exaggerations and potential complexities of this situation yet you don't seem to be listening.