‘He didn’t come back’: the grim camps from where refugees set off for UK

In transient tent towns near Dunkirk people disappear and no one knows if they made it safely across the Channel

For four days this week Karwan Tahir shared a tent in the woods around Dunkirk with a young man named Karim. In the early hours of Wednesday morning Karim set off for the UK - a journey in darkness to the nearby beach, and from there into the vast and uncertain Channel in a flimsy dinghy.

I don't know if he made it or if he drowned," Tahir said on Friday, showing off the living space he and Karim had briefly shared. He didn't come back. I only knew he came from [Iraqi] Kurdistan, like me. We met at the camp. He knew I spoke English and so he invited me to share his tent.