More than 28,000 migrants crossed the Channel in 2021, a record

IMMIGRATION – The crossing is perilous, but the number of exiled people dreaming of reaching England from the French coast is not weakening. In 2021, at least 28,395 people crossed the English Channel on board small boats, a record, said British news agency PA on the basis of figures obtained from the UK Home Office. The previous year, they were more than 8,400.

In the month of November 2021 alone, nearly 6,900 people made the crossing despite the danger linked to the traffic density, strong currents and low water temperature, including a record 1,185 people in a single day, on the 11th of the same month.

Some migrants paid for it with their lives, like at the end of November, when the sinking of a precarious boat – the deadliest in this very busy seaway – left 27 dead , causing a great wave of emotion in the public. According to information from World , confirming the testimony of two survivors, the victims had unsuccessfully joined the emergency services during the sinking .

Tensions between Paris and London

The phenomenon of crossings has developed strongly since 2018 in the face of the closure of the port of Calais (northern France) and Eurotunnel, which migrants used while hiding in vehicles.

The illegal Channel crossings have become a real political puzzle for the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Home Secretary Priti Patel, as the Conservative leader has made the fight against immigration his hobbyhorse, in the wake of Brexit .

They are also a subject of regular tension between Paris and London. The British authorities consider insufficient the efforts undertaken on the French side to prevent migrants from boarding, despite the payment of financial aid. The French, who refute these accusations, retort that London is reluctant to actually untie the purse strings.

The climate between the two capitals was further strained after the murderous shipwreck in November, Paris seeing with a very negative view a proposal from Boris Johnson asking the French to take back the migrants who crossed the Channel illegally. France had canceled a meeting between the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, and Priti Patel .

Indignation of associations

According to the The Times newspaper on Monday, the British have little hope of reaching an agreement with France before the French presidential election in April. In the meantime, the British government wants to make these crossings “impracticable”, for which smugglers increasingly resort to larger capacity boats, of several dozen people.

A controversial bill, which promises tougher measures against smugglers but also against illegally arrived migrants, is currently being examined in Parliament. If it is adopted, asylum seekers who have arrived illegally on the territory will be sent back to the “safe countries” through which they have previously passed.

The associations human rights defenders are indignant at a text deemed cruel. But for the government, it will create “a fair but firm immigration system”, “protect the most vulnerable and crack down on illegal immigration and the criminal gangs that facilitate it.”

For Tim Naor Hilton, director of the Refugee Action association, “people will continue to cross the Channel in precarious boats, and traffickers will continue to make profits”. This situation may not end “unless ministers open more roads for refugees to seek asylum” in the UK.

Also see Le HuffPost : After the sinking of a migrant boat in Calais, these volunteers testify to the difficult rescue

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