Thousands of illegal migrants, including families with young children and unaccompanied minors, hide in the forests near Calais and Dunkirk in France.
The UK has become their last hope to start a new life but the journey is extremely dangerous, and the French police are determined to stop them. Even if they manage to cross, England’s ‘hostile environment’ policy and strict immigration laws means they have no guarantee of being allowed to stay. This raises the question: are we at a point of no return when it comes to how Europe and the UK treat illegal migrants? Is dehumanising and criminalising migrants the answer to a problem that is predicted to increase?
In this episode of ‘Point of No Return’, we witnesses life in the Calais camps and accompanies the volunteers and activists of Utopia 56, an independent network that offers assistance and information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and monitors the behaviour of the police forces and the compliance with the basic protocols for the protection of migrants’ rights.