Calendar Calais

Calderdale Council is meeting today to approve plans to take in 50 Syrian refugees as part of the Government's Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.

The refugees will arrive in Calderdale over the next two years.

The refugee and migrant camps in Dunkirk are just 30 miles from the sprawling Calais 'Jungle', but the setting could not be more different.

ITV Calendar travelled with Bradford-based charity the Human Relief Foundation to the Grand-Synthe, to find out how aid from Yorkshire is helping people in the camp.

Watch the second of two special reports:

A Bradford charity has told ITV Calendar that it is considering withdrawing its work from the Calais camps, claiming that too many people are there for the wrong reasons.

The UK Government has so far preferred to focus its attention on the camps in the countries bordering Syria. But the Prime Minister said that people should not be discouraged from donating aid to Calais if they wished to do so.

He nevertheless defended the Government's record of helping those caught up in the refugee crisis.

The Prime Minister said the people living in the Calais Jungle should talk to French authorities and put in an asylum claim there. He pointed out that Britain is 'building very strong borders around the tunnel and the Calais port', in an attempt to 'make sure that people who come to Britain have a right to come to Britain.'

ITV Calendar travelled with Bradford-based charity the Human Relief Foundation to the Calais Jungle, to find out how aid from Yorkshire is helping people in the camp.

Watch the first of two special reports:

A Bradford-based charity has told ITV Calendar that it is considering withdrawing its aid from the camp in Calais, following a visit to assess the situation in the area.

The Human Relief Foundation said that many people living in the Calais Jungle have enough food and clothes, with some suggesting they are happy to stay in the camp.

Deputy CEO Kassim Tokan described life in the camp as “miserable”, but said the visit had led him to question the motivations of some people living there.

Given the current political climate, Mr Tokan suggested many of the people living in the camps would be better off closer to home.

He stressed that each case had to be taken individually, but indicated that it would be difficult to isolate “genuine” cases among the thousands of people living in the camps.

Mr Tokan suggested the charity would look instead to support people closer to their country of origin. “We need to find other places to help them… we are going to help people in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Turkey.”