Israeli aid workers fly to France to assist ‘forgotten’ refugees

Israeli psychologists and counsellors have flown into northern France to support refugees trying to get into the UK from camps in Calais and Dunkirk, writes Stephen Oryszczuk

Volunteers from IsraAID, which supported refugees arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos, sent the team in last week, saying the thousands of mainly Kurdish Iraqis who are trying to gain entrance had been “forgotten”.

A spokesman said: “Thousands of families here struggle to satisfy even their most basic needs, and uncertainty and ambiguity of their current situation only adds to the mental anguish of the horrors they escaped back home.”

Those working with refugees have estimated that four in five camped out in northern France are Kurds, most of whom are from Iraq, where the semi-autonomous Kurdistan is fighting Islamic State. 

Last year alone, more than one million people made their way from the Middle East to Europe, in the largest movement of people since World War II.