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The woman who recharges Calais migrants' phones

Devout Catholic Brigitte Lips, 58, plugs in phones all day at her home so migrants at the French port can keep in touch with their families.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

A Calais resident is helping migrants who sleep rough in Calais, by charging their mobile phones in her house so that they can maintain contact with family members, reports RFI.

Brigitte Lips, a fervent Catholic, says she can take up to 150 phones per day. All around the house phones are plugged into chargers, even in the bathroom.

“I give them a piece of paper with a number and they give me their phones and chargers,” she explained.

The 58 year old, who used to run a restaurant and has four children aged between 19 and 41, began charging the phones in May.

People begin arriving at her house at around 7 am and she unplugs her doorbell at 7 pm to get a break.

Read more of this report from RFI.