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SOAS Goes To Calais

SOAS Goes to Calais is a project based at the School of Oriental and African Studies [London] which works against the devastating effects of an inhumane border regime in Northern France and across Europe.

We do this by organising regular solidarity trips to the Calais region and other parts of Europe, in which we volunteer with local organisations, carry out frontline support work with refugees and migrants in camps and elsewhere, and put on occasional musical events. The core team consists of members of the SOAS Ceilidh Band. In recent years, we have also organised trips to Paris, Athens, Berlin, Istanbul and Lebanon.

The principal activity of the trips is the organisation of musical encounters (including the bringing of musical instruments into the camps, informal concerts in the jungles, and a ceilidh dance (in February 2024 this will be a Bal d'Hiver at the MER refugee aid centre in Calais).

In London, we organise public meetings and talks to raise awareness of the issue, and hold fundraising parties and concerts, open to SOAS students, SOAS staff, and the general public. Through our work runs the belief that this is a political issue as well as a humanitarian one.

Our ultimate aim is to open the borders across and beyond Europe, and to see migrants and refugees received with dignity and respect, whoever they are and wherever they go.

We are travelling to Calais on the weekend of 17-18 February 2024, for volunteering and for musical activities involving the SOAS Ceilidh Band.

You are invited to join us.

For further details, write to:

[email protected]

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Video links related to our earlier solidarity activities in Calais:

Syrian musicians in Calais - November 2014

https://youtu.be/0XZNaS2145E

SOAS solidarity tour - October 2013

https://youtu.be/MwmEZy0jO4o

SOAS Arabic Band solidarity tour - May 2015

https://youtu.be/QqcsDR8jMKM

Mapping the homeland: Syrian refugees - 2015

https://youtu.be/DUAkP5nz4_c

Last updated: 16.xii.2023

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