WITH ankle-deep mud slopping around us and tents covering most of the available land in Grande-Synthe camp, finding ten minutes to have a chat with aid worker Paddie Marlow-Barnes didn’t appear to be the easiest thing to do for Post reporter Lewis Brown.

But even in this most desperate of human situations, there was still a cafe area where refugees could drink tea, smoke, and get out of the mud and mess for a few minutes.

A blackened tin hut with wooden benches lined inside, this area felt like luxury compared to some of the tents and homes I had seen earlier that day on our trip.

Jovial volunteers raised spirits by dishing out tea from a large cooking pot at the back of the cafe and it gave me a chance to find out why someone like Paddie gives up her time for free to help the refugees.

“I co-ordinate all the distributions and donations for the whole camp, so I try to send stuff between Calais and here (Dunkirk) to make sure we’ve got enough to provide the residents with exactly what they need, rather than the things they do not need,” explained Paddie.

The Post worked with Paddie before and during our trip to France to ensure items donated by readers reached the right people.

She continued: “The camp is chaotic, it’s really chaotic. It’s absolute squalor.

“The camp here at Grande-Synthe is disgusting but the people make it something else. There’s a real sense of community and that’s what encourages people to come back and volunteer.

“A lot of people come to help. We don’t have a lot of long-term volunteers, which is what we need, but we do have a lot of short-term volunteers who come in and fill in for what needs doing on a certain day. We also get a lot of people coming to have a walk around, but I try to drag them off (the site).”

Paddie has witnessed all aspects of life in the camp and has learned a lot from the stories of the refugees and how they got there.

She feels more needs to be done to help the refugees in France and to get them re-housed in the UK.

She explained:?“We need a short-term resolution. We cannot have these people living in this disgusting mess.

“We need to stop talking about it and act on what we’ve got happening here.

“I personally think it’s a matter of working together. A lot of people here have families in the UK and it would be good if we could get them housed there, but there needs to be a shared effort to get everyone homed and get everyone out of the mud.”