At around 10.50 am, a young male refugee from Sudan died after being hit by a train in Calais. The death appears to have been a suicide. Witnesses report the man stepping out in front of the train and the driver sounding the horn but being unable to stop.
The emergency services attended but were unable to save the victim, who was reported to be in his thirties.
The incident happened on a level crossing on the outskirts of Calais near a place where refugees stay, and where we distribute food. The man who died was well known to us. He had been struggling with living in a world which persecutes displaced people simply looking for safety and respect, and had told people he did not want to live anymore.
This is the tenth reported refugee death in Calais in a year and the fourth refugee death on the stretch of a railway line in fourteen months. The line is now recognised as the most dangerous in the region.
