Landfall in the UK, The White Cliffs of Dover loom large in the minds of those in Calais waiting to make the crossing.

For the last 20 years the French city of Calais, with links from the European continent to the United Kingdom through its port has become the last milestone for migrants fleeing wars, oppressive regimes and economic depressions around the world.

The migrants, after years spent traveling from their home countries such as Mali, Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan Iran, and most recently Syria, smuggle themselves inside container trucks that from Calais will hopefully take them to the United Kingdom.

Their dangerous journey is made even grimmer by the controls carried out by French authorities, which only contribute to worsen the migrants already precarious living conditions. With no sanitation facilities and only being fed once a day by volunteer organisations many fall in despair and commit suicide or opt for taking unnecessary risks eventually sustaining severe injuries or even disappearing without leaving any trace behind.

These photographs intend to document their struggle in search of a better future and invites the viewer to reflect about the current migration policies implemented in Europe.

Although there are no official figures it is estimated that a daily flux of between 900 and 1200 people find themselves stuck in Calais, forgotten and living in precarious conditions.

Salvador Banyo
www.salvadorbanyo.com

About the photographer
Salvador Banyo, (Barcelona, 1987) is a  self-taught Spanish photojournalist currently based in London. After completing three years of journalism studies in Spain he moved to the UK to finish his degree where he started his career as a freelance photographer.

The photo story featured here tells the story of those people stuck in Calais trying to reach the United Kingdom illegally and was motivated in response to the lack of significant coverage found in the mainstream British Press about the desperate situation on the other side of the Channel.