line of the European Migrant Crisis. We knew this and
arranged to meet up with an organisation called Utopia
56 who were helping people caught up in the crisis. We
met up with Ivan from the organisation to speak with him
about how human traffickers were preying on the vulner-
able refugee and migrant community. We knew that it
was a major issue and asked him how it was that so many
people were falling in to a life of slavery within Paris. He
told us to come and see for ourselves and offered to let us
observe a night shift at a humanitarian centre 20 minutes
away from the Eiffel Tower.
That evening we arrived to find an emergency aid
camp straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. It looked
like something you would see in the “Day After Tomor-
row” but instead, it was here in modern day Paris.
It was a cold, wet night and queues of people were
lining up outside a giant, fluorescent, emergency dome.
Scantily clothed, soaking wet and freezing cold, the group
of people stood along the railings – pleading to be let in.
Many were turned away as there just wasn’t enough room
for everyone.
High priority cases, like families with young children
are given priority and Utopia 56 try to find them accom-
modation wherever they can. Unfortunately, that’s not
always possible, we saw a family with young children
given a pop-up tent and shown to the nearest park. It was
a freezing October night. We camped that night too, yet
with good gear we were still cold. I can’t imagine how bad
it was for that family.
The situation these people were in was so, so desper-
ate.
Imagine not being able to find shelter for your family
and having to resort to a pop-up tent and soggy blanket in
a central city park. Imagine waking in the morning and
somebody offers you work and a new life … a new job,
in a new place. Without a second thought anyone would
take the offer. “Anything has to be better than this,” you
would think. Very often it isn’t and all of a sudden, you’re
trapped in a life of slavery, unable to help your family at
all.
We left the centre at about 11pm and went to a bar just
by the Eiffel Tower to have a drink with some friends who
were still in town from the rally. The contrast was just so
vast, it was a sobering experience. The visit to the centre
was a very tangible way to witness just how easy it is for
human traffickers to run their businesses in our society.
A business that reportedly profits more than Amazon, Mi-
crosoft, Facebook and Apple combined (Time Magazine,
2014).
We left Paris and scooted south through Europe to
Greece, learning about the issue as we travelled and
spreading the message where we could – including doing
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