Playing Cricket with Migrants and Anti-UKIP Activists
Words: Charlotte England
2015
One of the many problems for migrants stuck in Calais trying to get the UK is boredom. The people struggling to survive there are stuck in an incredibly boring purgatory.
But on Saturday when I visited the Calais "Jungle"—the former squat-home of many of those migrants—that wasn't the case. The soon to be pulled down camp was a hive of activity. Music blared out of rigged up speakers and a cricket match spread across a football pitch. Cricket whites were pulled over grubby clothes as migrants shacks formed the backdrop of a game that was somehow both heartening and bleak.
"I can't imagine how I've managed to play cricket for the best part of 40 years without Afghan folk songs coming out of the sound system," remarked Christopher Douglas, a "Sunday cricketer," and a comedy writer and actor the rest of the time. "It's just brilliant—adds to the atmosphere so much."
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