These migrants who want to leave at all costs

That night, in Pas-de-Calais, there was almost no wind, the sea was calm and the time was right for clandestine crossings. In the almost total darkness, police officers tried to prevent the departure of a boat, reported nearly three kilometres away. The situation was tense. The order was given to remain cautious. The candidates for exile finally gave up and turned back. Originally from Afghanistan, a couple seemed exhausted. The police officers punctured the boat in which the migrants hoped to cross. It was a simple seven-metre-long inflatable. According to one colonel, the boat would never have been able to reach British waters.

A man paid 1,500 euros to reach England. Taking to the sea is a case of double or quits. Boarding often has the air of a commando operation. “Most of them are very young, they are 16, 17, 18 years old, and it is not that they are not affected by the shipwrecks, but that they have a long journey behind them”explains Benjamin Delombre, the journalist who wrote the investigation, present on set.