Читать книгу The Migrant Diaries - Lynne Jones - Страница 21

– Proximity to the crisis should not define responsibility, there has to be a sharing… The UN Special Rapporteur for International Migration, is saying on the World Service as I get up.

Turkey will, if push comes to shove, take 600,000 more refugees from Syria. The EU is asking them to barricade those same refugees and stop them travelling any further. Twenty more drowned on their way to Greece yesterday. Meanwhile, Cameron is trying to terrify the residents of Southern England with prospects of Calais-style encampments in the lovely South Downs if we leave the EU.

When I get to camp and park in front of one of the distribution points, there is a small riot going on. A thin Kurdish man has a long metal pole and is threatening one of the Sudanese. Large groups of people are separating them, and the man appears to calm down. But then, another young black guy comes and pushes to the front of the line, and I see the Kurd rile up again. I walk forward and link my arm through that of the young black man, smile and shake my head, and say—no queue jumping, let’s walk to the back. He is so astonished that he goes without protest. Then I stand in the centre with my arms folded, looking extremely stern.

– I am old enough to be the mother of most of you here, so no queue jumping! I am watching you. Another Kurd is translating. Everyone laughs.

– And by the way, if you all want to go to the UK, this is the time to learn our habits. We queue. We love queuing. We believe you have to be fair. First come, first served, form a line and NO QUEUE JUMPING. So now is your chance to learn to queue!

More laughter. I am watching you…

Actually, I am not. I leave to go and see someone, but I come back in twenty minutes and they are all queuing quietly besides Riyad’s caravan. He tells me there are no problems, and the black guy, who is still in his place, gives me a smile and a wave.

The volunteers running the new Baloo Youth Centre and some others from Jungle Books want to discuss problem children—one boy in particular is always fighting with everyone. He is very emotional and always sorry afterwards. Unsurprisingly, he is completely without parents or friends.

We all agree on the importance of keeping the Youth Centre safe; children cannot bring in any sticks or knives. There are enough male staff here to give the boys a lot of individual attention, so if G is breaking up the toys, one of them can both exclude him from the Centre, and stay with him at the same time so that he can be prevented from doing more damage, but also receive attention and care, and discuss what led to any outbursts. I call it ‘accompanied exclusion’.