"Come," beckons Siddique*, a jovial 14-year-old Afghan boy wearing a puffer jacket so large it appears to be swallowing him whole. "Come and drink with 'the Bambinos!'" The teenager grabs my arm and drags me to a gathering where four of his young countrymen sit sipping mugs of steaming black tea, reports Deutsche Welle.
This seemingly innocuous encounter does not, however, take place in a Kabul side street but in a small woodland clearing just a stone's throw from the Central Hospital in Calais, northern France.
This winter the coastal city has a seen a spike in the number of migrants trying to cross the English Channel by boat in order to reach the United Kingdom. France recorded only 12 attempts in 2017, while this figure rose to 71 in 2018, with 539 people being plucked from fragile inflatable dinghies whilst aiming to traverse the world's busiest shipping lane. Eighty percent of the attempts took place in November and December alone.
Siddique says he is originally from Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province and fled his home at the age of 12, when the Taliban murdered his father and brother. After a "completely terrifying" journey across Iran, Turkey, the Balkans and Germany, Siddique has established himself as the leader of a "Lord of the Flies" group of five unaccompanied Afghani minors — which he affectionately calls "the Bambinos."
The United Nations defines an unaccompanied minor as someone under the age of 18 "who has been separated from both parents and other relatives and is not being cared for by an adult."
Siddique and the other boys live in a cluster of tents amidst noxious detritus. Penniless and with no income the children are totally reliant on various aid organizations, headed by Help Refugees. Help Refugees provides the group with tents, blankets, clothing, firewood and three meals a day, all crucial as the temperature hovers around freezing.
The Bambinos existence is far from an anomaly, with Help Refugees documenting at least 250 unaccompanied minors in Calais and Dunkirk alone, out of a wider migrant population of approximately 2,000.