Songs of Praise from Calais migrant camp. How very BBC!
THE BBC was under fire last night for its decision to film a segment of Songs of Praise in a Calais migrant camp.
It was accused of wading into a sensitive political issue by sending staff from its flagship religious programme to France for a show to be broadcast next week.
At least nine people have already died trying to cross from Calais to Britain amid this summer’s migrant crisis which has placed police and social services under huge strain.
Yesterday, as criticism mounted, a priest filmed by the BBC in the camp for Songs of Praise admitted he tries to enter the UK illegally every night.
Just hours after a BBC cameraman visited his makeshift church Hagos Kesete, 31, joined friends trying to evade police close to the Channel Tunnel entrance.
Mr Kesete is one of two priests who lead congregations at the ramshackle Christian church constructed by migrants from planks of wood and tarpaulin. But when the Eritrean finishes performing services for the day, he becomes part of the migrant crisis that is crippling the French port.
Mr Kesete confessed that he has mounted desperate attempts to enter Britain ‘every night’ since arriving in Cal-
‘Excited about being on TV’
ais a month ago. He said: ‘It is very dangerous but we still try, even if it is difficult.’ Last night Conservative MP Damian Collins, who sits of the culture, media and sport Committee, said: ‘I don’t think it is appropriate at all to insert Songs of Praise into what is a very complex political and international situation.
‘Of course there are humanitarian concerns for the people involved but I don’t think this will help at all.’
John O’Connell of the Taxpayers’ Alliance added: ‘ The BBC should always be mindful of weighing into controversial issues, especially in programmes that are not specifically supposed t o be about current affairs.’
A number of BBC producers and cameramen have already visited the camp and spoken to Mr Kesete. They are expected to return tomorrow, with presenter Sally Magnusson.
They will film a segment which will then be inserted into the programme next Sunday.
Mr Kesete said he would be part of a group of migrants who sing two songs and was ‘excited’ about appearing on TV. Work on his church finished a few weeks ago. It now attracts a 500-strong congregation each week.
The church is part of a growing camp on the outskirts of Calais where more than 5,000 migrants are living in desperate conditions. Some of the better houses have heavy- duty locks and chains on the doors.
Others are simply sticks covered in tarpaulin. Despite the grim conditions, many have tried to brighten their temporary homes with flower displays, pictures, mirrors and paintings. From the camp, each night migrants walk, hitchhike and even cycle to the port, or to the Tunnel entrance, where they try to board lorries of trains.
Thousands have tried over the last two weeks leading to clashes with police. Mr Kesete trained as a priest for four years in his war-torn home country before undertaking a perilous journey to Europe with a group of friends who are also living in the camp.
The group first travelled across Africa to Libya where they paid smugglers ‘a lot money’ to take them to Italy. The group then spent two months travelling to Calais.
Eritreans now f orm the second- l argest group of migrants risking their lives to reach Italy, after Syrians.
Songs of Praise previously courted controversy by broadcasting from Strangeways jail in October 1982 and from the Falkland Islands the following year.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘ The story of the migrants and asylum seekers is of interest to our core audience and beyond.’
AT the BBC, Director- General Lord Hall, Head of news James Harding and Director of Strategy James Purnell have, incredibly, all disappeared on holiday at the same time. Meanwhile, back home, chaos reigns. The Corporation’s decision to film a special edition of Songs of Praise from a makeshift church inside the squalid migrant camp in Calais is preposterous.
People in Britain are deeply concerned by the daily images of illegal immigrants laying siege to the Channel Tunnel and, in one astonishing case this week, simply walking through.
Yesterday, the Un said the situation was so dire that France should plan for a ‘civil emergency’. Yet to the BBC it is an opportunity to indulge in gratuitous, ultra-liberal student politics.
Indeed, how depressingly predictable that the BBC got the idea of filming in Calais from the Guardian columnist and leader writer Giles Fraser – a Left-wing priest who quit St Paul’s in protest at the cathedral’s decision to remove occupy anarchists from outside.
BBC ‘Creative Director’ Alan Yentob, meanwhile, has spent recent days running around in a wild- eyed rage over the closure of Kids Company, of which he is chairman of the trustees (and therefore might be considered culpable for much of its financial ineptitude).
Mr Yentob has intervened three times in the BBC’s coverage of the scandal, contacting newsnight allegedly to try to ‘influence’ its reporting of the story then sitting i n on a Radio Four Today programme interview with Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh.
on Thursday night, he apologised for berating special correspondent Lucy Manning as she prepared a report into allegations of sexual abuse at the charity.
Understandably, MPs are demanding an investigation into whether Mr Yentob is transgressing the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality and objectivity.
From the BBC Trust, however, there is virtual silence.
Which begs the question: just who is in charge of this bloated behemoth?