Damian Weilers' socially conscious video for Nerina Pallot's The Road, from her upcoming album The Sound and the Fury, deals with the current issue of the migrant community at Calais trying to get into the UK, through a series of short snippets documenting life in the migrant camps.

Weilers has shed light on the living conditions of the migrants who risk their lives attempting to broach the UK border and attain a better life, facing hardship that doesn't end when they enter Europe. Filming for a week in the camp known as The Jungle, he does them the service as treating them as individuals, not an anonymous scourge, and handling their situation with sensitivity.    

DAMIAN WEILERS:

"The most overwhelming attitude of the general inhabitants was of warmth, peace and a desireto live a better way of life. These people risk their lives to make something of their lives not take advantage. This surprised me and made me more enthusiastic to make a small statement of understanding to those whom are unaware, which is most of us including myself prior to meeting them. The camp is known as ‘the jungle’ and the conditions are absolutely awful and really is against human rights, somehow they still stay upbeat and happy despite having lost everything. 

"The jungle is made up of migrants from many different countries, the main ones being Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya and Syria. Most of the migrants are fearful of being on film in case they get sent back to their home country where there is a great chance they will be targets and killed. This certainly made filming difficult, but spending seven days in The Jungle filming and engaging with them warmed many attitudes. There where some like David From Eritrea that was more than happy to share his life with me and be filmed.

"Emotionally day five and six where the hardest as one feels drained and really depressed about the situation, the novelty of seeing strange things happen around me in 'the jungle’ had now worn off. At times I felt as though I was exploiting these people just for a music video, but had to reminded myself that I chose this platform to help create awareness and discussion to those who would not necessarily seek a different angle than most media.

"I’m upset that we place these unfortunate people in the same category as the people they are running from, but I have no answer to solve it, and I’m deeply sorry that these people are forced into this segregated camp. I have also made really great friends and hope their lives change for the better."