A retired teacher has told of the touching experience of volunteering in Calais to help refugees hoping for a better life in the UK.

Mike Gregson, 62, of Maryport, was a teacher at Lakes College.

He first visited Calais in 2016 and his last visit to the refugee camp, helping migrants learn English, was just before the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Gregson recalled the first time he felt the urge to lend his skills and volunteer his time to Care4Calais.

"My first trip to Calais followed a visit to Northern France in October 2015, the first time I’d used Eurotunnel. What met my eyes when the train emerged from the tunnel was shocking - a tall wire fence with barbed wire, patrolled by armed police with Alsatian dogs, running both sides of the track for miles all the way into Calais.

"The last time I’d seen anything like this was on educational visits to Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sachenhausen. What I was looking at is the 3.8m high fence topped by 450mm ‘Y’ shaped extensions which carry six rows of barbed wire and coiled concertina razor wire resulting in an overall fence height of 4.25m for 14km costing £17m paid for by the British Government and built by a fencing company from Kent.

"This is effectively the English border in France, built to keep out people attempting to migrate to the UK. The next day I took a train back to take a closer look, I walked from the station to the outskirts of the camp. I saw enough to understand that something didn’t feel right, an apparent lack of social justice, an enforced division between ‘us and them’ an unnatural state of affairs, I vowed to return to take a closer look."

Volunteering at the camp, Mr Gregson met people from all walks of life, mostly men fleeing places such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Eritrea. Mr Gregson said the men are at risk of forced conscription into either rebel or governmental force in their countries, and while the hope of a better future is what encourages them to make the harrowing trip, they are also leaving their families and everything they know behind, with loss and anxiety left to take over their emotions.

"It’s a hot sunny day in August 2016, I’m with a group of volunteers wearing Care4Calais fluorescent bibs. I’m talking with Philip, an 83-year-old man from Wales. He’s volunteered before – an old hand. He suddenly breaks off to talk with a young man, I’d say 20-years-old. They talk for half a minute then Phil calls over our guide - a Syrian guy who has been here a while and knows his way around.

"It transpires that this young man has just walked into the camp from Sudan. All he has in this world is what he wears - a T-shirt, trousers and well worn trainers. He’s taken to the Sudanese reception tent. He will be chaperoned for a week until he finds his feet then he’s on his own again. I ask Phil – ‘How did you know he had just arrived and needed help?’ his answer: ‘The look in his eyes.’."

Mr Gregson met people eager to learn English to help them start a new life. But since the coronavirus outbreak, things have become tougher at the camp."Within weeks of my last visit Covid-19 has since complicated matters further. I have kept in touch via social media.

"Understandably the refugees are just as worried about Covid-19 as any one else. Care4Calais volunteers use PPE and have introduced social distancing .

"The French authorities have scaled back the support they provide with refugees, consequently more susceptible to food insecurity. Social media has been used to highlight relevant shortages such as hand sanitizer, this prompted an immediate response from a Scottish company who donated and shipped a pallet load to help.

"There is an even greater need for donations and a greater pressure on volunteers who now require special travel passes. The hard working team of volunteers in Calais provide an even more important service to the refugees."

For more information visit care4calais.org