Since the start of the year, 22,000 illegal Channel crossings have been recorded. To follow in the footsteps of these survivors, head to the south of England where the migrants disembark, after a very trying trip. It is here often, on one of Kent’s pebble beaches, that these young men and women set their first foot on English soil. For the most part, this is the end of a journey through all of Europe.
A grueling journey that ends with a perilous sea crossing, most often in an inflatable boat or even in a simple boat. Among these exiles, we meet a young Kurd from Iranil, who arrived in England four months ago. He prefers to remain anonymous but agrees to tell his story: “It was on a small boat with 50 people. You get sick, it’s very dangerous. The waves push you back, go in your eyes, in your mouth. It’s very salty, you get all kinds of infections on it. your skin.” He is staying with 200 other young migrants in a temporary reception center. They are as if camouflaged by an opaque tarpaulin 15 kilometers from the port of Dover, away from the city, near a forest where everyone is waiting to submit their asylum application.
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What happens next? What happens to these survivors of the Channel crossing? For several months, there is time to digest the exile. Some are even out of breath when they tell us about their boat trip. It was a year and a half ago for Nadia, a Bedouin woman, deprived of rights in her country, Kuwait. Since arriving in England, she has lived in a small apartment, social housing, on the outskirts of London. “For hours we thought our life was over. Thank God, she confides. We have arrived, we are taking all the steps for a new life, a new horizon, for children, care, education … And thank God … The government helps us with everything. “
While waiting to rule on their asylum application, the government pays them 37 pounds per week, around forty euros which allows them to fill the fridge. In another popular district of London, Danielle is also patient for her asylum application. This Iraqi Kurd fled her country but especially her family after having sex outside of marriage. Pregnant, she crossed Europe then spent two months in the jungle of Grande-Synthe, in France therefore, before attempting the crossing seven times. She is now enjoying every moment with her baby who was born here in England. “I feel really very happy, I love this life, European life, I go out shopping, in the park, lots of things with my child and my partner, it’s a normal life, without stress”
Like Daniel, many migrants want to live normally, in peace. They want to work too. But to exercise a professional activity, it is necessary to wait to obtain the right of asylum. Especially since since Brexit, Great Britain lacks hands in a lot of sectors. The catering, the building … Bridget Chapman works in an association in Kent which takes in migrant children: “Maybe they come from a country that is a former British colony. They’ve been told all their lives that the UK is the center of the universe, the motherland, where you have to go to be. Safe. Because of colonization, a lot of people speak English, they don’t have to learn another language. Others join their families here … There are a lot of reasons. “
We hear a lot of relief, the happiness of having arrived, but this is not the case for all asylum seekers. There is often a disconnect between expectations and reality. There is a certain discomfort after the euphoria of the arrival according to Soumaya, volunteer of the Salam association. She supported the migrants before their departure from Calais and keeps contact with some of them on Whatsapp or Messenger: “Those who are there [en Angleterre] tell them things out of pride and arrogance, for some, that are not really true, resumes this volunteer. Obviously, when we harbor lies and hopes and we ourselves are in a catastrophic situation, we believe in it and we only cling to this dream. We say to ourselves ‘if he got there and comes from the same village as me, from the same country as me, why not me and my family?’ “
Few dare to speak about it on the microphone since they hope to obtain asylum. But the immigration services take a long time to study the files. Sometimes more than a year, twice as long as in France. However, the United Kingdom intends to further tighten its migration policy, even if it means shattering the dreams of the many contenders for a new life on British soil.