Terror in Paris takes it toll on refugees in Calais camp

I’D LIKE to tell you how a terrorist organisation impacted on one man’s ability to have a shower. But first, a word about their name. Given that Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state, it’s probably time to refer to them as Daesh, a name coined by someone in the Syrian resistance.

Pronounced Da’sh, it’s an acronym, which in Arabic is a rarity — a made up word for a made up organisation. Daesh is also a play on words, because ‘daes’ is Arabic for ‘trample / crush underfoot’.

Anyway, more about the man whom Daesh prevented from having a shower. This man — we’ll call him Sami — has lived in the Calais refugee camp for four months. Now I know you might not want to hear about the Calais refugees again, but I have just come back from my fourth stint volunteering there and to be honest it’s pretty hard to think about tinsel and Christmas shopping when your head is full of desperate hungry people losing hope as they slide about in the winter mud, surrounded by riot police done up like Judge Dredd.