The women stand covering their faces in a small group and holding up signs while under a motorway bridge on the outskirts of Calais. Behind them is the Jungle camp — a wasteland where around 4, asylum seekers live and the place just women and children now call home. On the road above them, articulated lorries speed by, carrying freight bound for England. Many of these women have spent their nights on this road, trying to scramble on board vans, cars and trucks. They have all failed.
Scroll down for video. They were photographed holding up pieces of paper declaring their former careers and asking, 'Where are our rights?!?
A woman stands with her small child and other refugees, during protests on the edge of Calais, France. These women are from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan and are seeking safe refuge from their home countries. One woman protests and faces cameras with a piece of paper reading, 'The jungle is not for us. The jungle is for animals'. Many of the women admit to sleep six to a tent for security as they live in constant fear of being raped after dark when men drink and fight.
Their little group consists of around 50 women and a handful of young children. They are holding printed sheets of paper which read: 'The Jungle is not for us. The Jungle is for animals. It's a poignant act, meant to tell the outside world, in a very personal way, that they still matter. She has been in the camp for three months after she was forced to leave Eritrea for speaking out against the government who threatened to put her in prison.
She is just 27, although she looks much older. Her face is full of anger and defiance as she shouts into a megaphone: 'Where are our human rights? Tents donated from Glastonbury and Reading Festival are giving the migrants a modicum of shelter but the women sleep six to a tent for security as they live in constant fear of being raped after dark. Refugees wonder around the camp which is littered with papers, old food boxes and overflowing waste. The smell of human waste is overpowering.
