Thirty-one white roses were thrown into the port of Dunkirk (North) on Saturday, November 23. Thirty-one, as the number of people killed or missing at sea on the night of November 23-24, 2021, off the coast of Calais (Pas de Calais). More than 200 people gathered in the streets of Dunkirk to commemorate the third anniversary of the most serious migrant shipwreck in the English Channel since the explosion, at the end of 2018, of the phenomenon known as “small boats”, these improvised inflatable boats. . on board from which immigrants try to reach England. “France will not allow the English Channel to become a cemetery”, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, had promised on the day of the tragedy. However, although the year is not over, at least 72 migrants have died trying to reach England by boat, according to a count by the Pas-de-Calais prefecture. This is more than the total number of people who died in the English Channel in the last five years combined. Has France become accustomed to the worst?
On the afternoon of November 24, Macron and the then English Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, agreed “the emergency” intensify the fight against crossings. In 2021, more than 28,500 people managed to reach England in small boat. The year 2022 was a record year with almost 46,000 crossings. After a slight decrease in 2023, since the beginning of 2024, almost 34,000 people have crossed the Strait of Pas-de-Calais in fragile boats.
They are Afghans, Iranians, Eritreans, Vietnamese, Turks, Syrians, Sudanese and even Iraqis. According to data from the British Home Office analyzed by the Oxford University Immigration Observatory, 93% of people who crossed the English Channel between 2018 and March 2024 requested asylum. And so far, about three-quarters have gained protection.
“Breaking the supply chain”
Most pay between 1,500 and 2,500 euros for the crossing. “Smuggling networks, mainly Iraqi-Kurdish, buy motors and inflatable boats in China. “They are delivered to Türkiye and then transported to Germany to be stored there before crossing.”explains Xavier Delrieu, head of the Office to Combat Illicit Migrant Trafficking, whose resources increased after the 2021 shipwreck and which dismantles between twenty and thirty networks each year. “We are trying to break the supply chain, but it is a bit like drug trafficking: no matter how much the networks are dismantled, it grows again”recognizes the commissioner, who also points out that investigations become more complex with the increase in the number of victims.
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