A RETIRED teacher from Newport, who is spending the coronavirus lockdown looking after vulnerable refugees in northern France, said the situation there is turning increasingly desperate.

Pauline Beckett, from Caerleon, travelled to France at the beginning of March for her annual stint volunteering with Care4Calais, a charity which helps refugees in Dunkirk and Calais with basic necessities such as clothing, tents, and hot drinks.

But days after arriving, the French government announced an imminent lockdown, and Mrs Beckett, 58, was faced with a dilemma – rush home, or stay and continue to offer her vital support.

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With the situation in France “deteriorating” and services becoming “increasingly sparse,” she and a handful of other volunteers decided to stay, knowing that it may be weeks or months before they could return home.

“What helped me was the thought that, during World War Two, people like my parents were posted abroad – sometimes for months at time – and that went on for years,” she said. “It suggested to me that doing this for few weeks was not such a big deal, really.”

But since the French lockdown came into effect, supplies and aid have dried up – and Care4Calais has taken on the job of feeding the hundreds of refugees who have become “increasingly marginalised” during the outbreak, Mrs Beckett said, adding: “Government and charitable provision is being cut back, and the gap between the fortunate and the unfortunate has widened.”

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Pauline Beckett, a retired teacher from Caerleon, Newport, is volunteering with Care4Calais at a refugee camp during the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Pauline Beckett/Care4Calais

The volunteers now deliver emergency food parcels to a derelict warehouse, where she said conditions were "squalid”.

“Many tents are crowded together in a small space, with campfires between them,” Mrs Beckett said.

The arrival of the food parcels is followed by efforts to make sure everyone is keeping a safe distance from each other – a challenge when the people living at the refugee camp are growing more desperate.

“We feel bossy, like we’re herding people… and that’s something that contravenes our values as volunteers,” Mrs Beckett said. “But we have to do [it] to protect ourselves, the refugees, and the rest of society from coronavirus.”

There are more personal challenges, too. Mrs Beckett has been away from her family for a month – two of her relatives are considered ‘vulnerable’ to coronavirus, and one of her children is a front-line NHS worker.

But staying on at the refugee camp has given Mrs Beckett “a sense of purpose”, she said, adding that Care4Calais needs as much help and financial support as possible.

“Like many others, I find such disparity unacceptable and Care4Calais has given me an opportunity to act, [and] to stay 'on the right side of history,'” she said.