CHURCHES in Basildon are encouraging people to donate clothes and essentials to help migrants in Calais.

Catholics in the town have launched a campaign for donations after teaming up with the charity Seeking Sanctuary.

Generous churchgoers have already handed over more than £1,000 in cash, as well as a dozen black bags full of items.

Father Dominic Howarth, priest for the parish of Our Lady and All Saints, said the campaign was inspired by recent international media coverage about Cecil the Lion, who was shot and killed in Africa last month.

He said: “Everyone knew the name of this lion, but at the same time none of the people who had died trying to get across the Channel had been named.

“It struck me we had humanised animals, but dehumanised people, and we had lost where our priorities are.”

The church is asking members of the parish to donate blankets, sleeping bags, clothes, toiletries and books.

Donated items, plus items which the church will buy from money which has been given for the cause, will be passed on to the Kent-based charity Seeking Sanctuary.

Father Dominic said the church has already been overwhelmed by the generosity of its congregation.

He said: “The charity said it doesn’t take money–it is only interested in goods.

“We received £1,383 last weekend alone, which we will use to buy items, and we have also received bags full of clothing.”

Ben Bano, founder of Seeking Sanctuary, said: “We so often use the term migrant to typecast a whole group of people, when in reality they are individual human beings like you and me “They are people who search for a minimum of dignity in their lives which have often been torn apart by events beyond their control.”

The church is requesting any donated clothing is either new or in nearly new condition.

Items can be dropped off at the Most Holy Trinity, in Wickhay, Basildon, or St Basil’s, in Luncies Road, Pitsea.

For more information about which items are wanted, visit basildoncatholics.org