France, Calais, 11 March 2018

Not far from a railway line and a pond, some Afghans have created a makeshift camp. Since the dismantling of the Calais Jungle, the local authorities no longer accept the installation of even temporary camps.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
France, Calais, 11 March 2018

A group of Eritrean migrants receive pancakes from a Belgian volunteer during an impromptu distribution in an industrial area on the outskirts of Calais. Local police do not tolerate the help given to migrants, so the stops are very fast.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
France, Calais, June 24th, 2018

Volunteers from "L'auberge des migrants" receive and organize donations. Here, clothes are graded before being distributed.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


France, Calais, 11 March 2018

A group of Belgian citizens meet on a parking lot in the center of Calais to organize the distribution of donations collected. Each person will receive a bag containing food, survival blanket and toiletries. Given the illegality of aid to migrants, the group must operate very quickly.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


Calais, France. July 22th, 2018. The conditions of migrants in the outskirts of the city have become increasingly difficult. Since the dismantling of the jungle, the police have tightened their stance and prevented the creation of new refugee camps, forcing migrants to live in increasingly difficult conditions. 

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


Paris, France. September 9th, 2018. Following the announcement by Parisian associations of the end of the aid provided to migrants, the Belgian citizens' collective decided to come and help migrants from the Porte de la Chapelle in Paris. Nurses are part of the convoy this time and there is a lot of care to be provided on site.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
France, Calais, 29 April 2018

A small group of young migrants arrive first at the distribution organized savagely by the citizens of the collective and take advantage of it to use the clear water brought to make a morning toilet.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


Liège, Belgium. August 20th, 2018. Once all the children of Nicole's family are in their bedrooms, Nicole gives French lessons to Kidane in the kitchen of the house in the evening. Kidane has already learned several languages on her journey from Eritrea. 

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
France, Calais, 29 April 2018
A young migrant passes between piles of gravel from a local company to join friends during the passage of aid convoy, organized by the citizens.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Calais, France. June 24th, 2018. The citizen's collective organizes distributions in the outskirts of the city. The idea is to open the cars and make the distributions as soon as possible. The police no longer accept assistance to migrants. One of the members of the collective tries to keep the migrants calm near the car, forming a line.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


Paris, France. January 13th, 2019. Given the increasingly difficult living conditions in the Calais region, migrants move to other major capitals to try to cross England by truck using a different route. Most of them travel between Paris, Brussels, Calais or Grande Synthe in the hope of finding a smuggler who will accept to bring them to England. Conditions in Paris this winter 2019 have become extremely difficult. Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Belgium. November 14, 2018. Under the impetus of the citizen collective, a small village in Walloon Brabant, south of Brussels, has decided to host a group of migrants each week in a room in the parish of the municipality. For one night a week, a group of migrants is sure to sleep and eat properly. 

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Paris, France. January 13th, 2019. The members of the collective, with the help of a local association called "Collectif Wilson", organize a distribution for the hundreds of migrants living around the Chapel Gate. Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


Liège, Belgium. August 20th, 2018. Once all the children of Nicole's family are in their bedrooms, Nicole gives French lessons to Kidane in the kitchen of the house in the evening. Kidane has already learned several languages on her journey from Eritrea. 

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Namur, Belgium. April 28th, 2018. The collective organizes a fundraising campaign with the help of social networks all the time, the idea of this collective is never to have money in hand but always to have food, clothes, sleeping bags or tents for an exceptional monthly convoy to Calais, Paris or Brussels. 

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Paris, France. January 13th, 2019. Given the increasingly difficult living conditions in the Calais region, migrants move to other major capitals to try to cross to England by truck using a different route. Most of them travel between Paris, Brussels, Calais or Grande Synthe in the hope of finding a smuggler who will accept to bring them to England. Conditions in Paris this winter 2019 have become extremely difficult. Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Paris, France. January 13th, 2019. The citizen collective also works through mutual assistance with other local associations such as the Wilson collective in Paris. They publish a help brochure published in several languages to help migrants in their asylum application process. Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas
Paris, France. January 13th, 2019. The lack of a solution pushes migrants to accept increasingly difficult living conditions. Here, a group of several dozen people live on the edge of the Paris ring road. Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


May 10, 2019. Brussels, Belgium. In view of the increasingly deteriorated conditions for migrants in space 0 of the Gare du Nord, a group of citizens decided to take action and clean up the space. About fifty people came to the aid of the migrants to fully restore the area that had become a shelter for migrants over the months.
France, Calais, 11 March 2018

Migrants must be organized and resourceful to avoid frequent arrests by local police. This small Afghan camp has thus built a small island whose access can only be done by a small wooden board. Once the police arrive, the refugees are massed on the island and remove the wooden board, the police no longer have access to the island. The arrest is postponed.

Valentin Bianchi / Hans Lucas


