This is a piece of a tent from the Sangatte camp (asylum seekers and immigrants camp in France). 200 tents were placed inside a large skeletal structure and inside each tent there 20-25 people. At one point there were 5000 people in the camp. There were also small caravans for families. Young men slept in the tents. When the weather was nice, we slept outside. In the last couple of weeks before they closed the camp, there were only 1500 people left. Some of us, young men, moved into the caravans. I was in the camp for 2 months. I arrived on September 20, 2002. Britain decided to accept a last group of Iraqi and Afghani asylum seekers. I arrived here on the 7th of December 2002 and I was in the third group to get here. I stayed in a hostel in Earl’s Court. When the decision was made to close the camp at Sangatte, members of the Red Cross team began cutting pieces out of the tents to keep as mementos. I cut this piece out of my tent and asked all the friends I had made in the camp to sign it. On one side there are the other asylum seekers like myself and on the other side, the European officials who worked in the camp.

MOHAMMED AL MASHHADANI, 22 years old arrived in Britain in 2002