FOUR friends are calling for donations of dates to help refugees in Calais get through Ramadan this year.

The group from Swindon is driving down to volunteer with Refugee Community Kitchen on June 9 to help prepare and serve meals for refugees living in a camp near to Calais.

The site is close to the former camp, nicknamed The Jungle, which was recently torn down by French authorities.

Kathryn Hay, who works for English Heritage in Swindon, told the Adver: “People don’t get to stay in one place for very long. Police will come along and confiscate tents and sleeping bags and pepper spray people. Some guys were actually arrested for having tents and sent to detention centres.

“I really admire what Refugee Kitchen and other volunteers are doing. It’s purely through compassion for other people in that situation.

“These people have uprooted their lives from England and gone over to Calais and set up these organisations purely because they wanted to do something to help because there is so little being done by the government there.

Kathryn has previously gone down to help out with other organisation Care4Calais and feels passionate about helping the people stranded at the border.

“This is a problem that we all need to take responsibility and I like to think if I was ever in that situation someone would show me the same kindness and compassion. Anyone of us could become refugees one day,” she added.

Hannah Parry, who works at Voluntary Action Swindon, said: “The situation is a lot worse for people now because they don’t have any amenities. When the camp was there they had tents and communal spaces and lots of people supporting them. That’s all gone and the situation is really dire. We just wanted to get back out there and do what we can.

You feel that it’s needed more now then it has done at any point. There’s still thousands of people there but they’ve got nothing at all.

“We saw what Refugee Community Kitchen and were just really inspired by it. There’s nothing more important than feeding people. I’m looking forward to contributing and just helping people. You can’t really imagine what it’s like until you see places like that. It’s impossible to forget the people in that situation.

Having met people and talked to them they were so grateful for the help they were getting.”

“We didn’t meet anyone there who wasn’t fleeing war or being persecuted in some way, there just very devastating situations these people are coming from.”

They are asking specifically for dates as they are particularly popular and nutritious.

There will be a collection box at Darkroom Espresso for food for the group to take in June.