This article was originally published in September 2021, when there was a sharp increase in Channel crossing attempts compared to the previous year. After the sinking of a makeshift boat that left 27 dead, off Calais (Pas-de-Calais), Wednesday, November 24, franceinfo has chosen to update it to republish it.
The 2020 record is clearly broken. Last year, just over 15,000 migrants tried to reach England by sea. Between January 1 and November 20, 2021, it was some 31,500 migrants who undertook this dangerous crossing and 7,800 who were rescued. The attempts to cross the Channel on board small boats have doubled in the last three months, recently warned the maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea, Philippe Dutrieux.
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The great majority of the attempts succeed in the ports or on the beaches of Kent. According to London, 22,000 migrants made the crossing over the first ten months of the year. But itThe crossings are sometimes fatal. The death of 27 migrants, Wednesday, November 24, in the sinking of their boat, constitutes an unprecedented tragedy on this migratory route. But how to explain this increase in the number of crossings.
Reinforced security in Calais
In recent years, crossing by ferry or train by sneaking into a truck or car has become an almost impossible task. Dozens of kilometers of high security fences have been installed in Pas-de-Calais, restricting access to the port of Calais and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel. Excavations of convoys have been intensified and advanced equipment makes it possible to detect possible intruders (CO2 or heart rate sensors, millimeter wave imaging, video surveillance, drones, etc.).
In addition, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has “considerably reduced cross-Channel traffic”, leading even more migrants to “move to the beaches”, explains Philippe Dutrieux, maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea. As of September 21, 2020, the authorities had discovered 4,120 people in trucks for the Channel Tunnel since the start of the year, compared to 17,622 for the whole of 2016, reported The voice of the North (paid item).
Limited resources in the face of departures
Securing a port and a station is one thing, securing a hundred kilometers of coastline is another. Over the years, migrants who have given up on board trucks try their luck by sea over an increasingly large area. “The phenomenon was first observed in Calaisis, before moving further south, towards Boulogne, details the maritime prefecture. It now concerns the entire coast, which represents a very large coastline to watch. ” The means allocated to this mission are regularly reinforced, making it possible to prevent 62% of the launchings, according to the Ministry of the Interior. However, they remain insufficient to claim to flush out each attempt, day or night.
Once the boats have left the dunes, it is often too late to stop the breakaways. “What matters is the safeguard of human life”, underlines the maritime prefect, Philippe Dutrieux. Attempting an interception would cause “an extremely important risk vis-à-vis these boats, which are overloaded, with women and children”, and which could capsize in the event of a panic movement, he explains.
The authorities at sea therefore focus on rescuing boats in difficulty and monitoring others. “As long as the danger is not proven, we accompany them to avoid the accident and, when we arrive in British waters, the British rescue services take care of them”, details the nautical brigade of the Calais gendarmerie.
Smugglers who adapt
The increase in the number of migrants crossing the Channel this year is “mainly due to a new smugglers’ strategy”, said the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, at the beginning of September, in a letter to his British counterpart Priti Patel (PDF, in English). According to him, the traffickers “use larger boats that can accommodate up to 65 people, instead of the makeshift boats which carried around 15 between 2019 and 2020”.
The Minister also mentions “diversionary tactics” consisting in using “bait boats”. In April, The Times reported on a strategy to simultaneously launch several low-quality canoes, occupied by the poorest migrants. Objective: to attract French patrol boats to these boats, which are prone to breaking down, and to leave the field open to larger boats, which are more solid and more expensive. A tactic confirmed by the French authorities in Figaro.
“As soon as the weather conditions are favorable, the smugglers use a saturation tactic by simultaneously sending several boats from different points of the coast.”
Louis Le France, Prefect of Pas-de-Calaisin “Le Figaro”
To escape patrols on the sand, smugglers are also changing their logistics. Some tend to trade the concealment of canoes in the dunes, which is increasingly risky, for a “drop-off” of boats and migrants directly on the shore. In addition, the price of crossings is falling and it has fallen from 6,000 euros to 3,000 euros on average, according to lifeguards at sea. “It is the law of supply and demand”, deplores the boss of the SNSM of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Guillaume Gatoux.
Difficult conditions in Calaisis
Several associations helping migrants see the increase in crossings as a direct consequence of the situation on the Opal Coast. In November 2020, three structures denounced a “police harassment” materialized by destruction of camps “every 48 hours”, with “deprivation and confiscation of personal property” and an “restriction of access to water, food and hygiene”.
“The conditions for survival on the coast are increasingly difficult, with massive evacuations and heavy police pressure.”
François Guennoc, president of the Auberge des migrantsto AFP
In an opinion delivered in February (PDF), the National Human Rights Advisory Commission called on the government to “put an end to the so-called ‘zero point of fixation’ security policy”, which results in “increasingly recurrent, massive and repressive expulsions” and “serious attacks on dignity”.
According to the British NGO Care4Calais, the Covid-19 crisis has accentuated certain difficulties, by reducing the possibilities of humanitarian aid on the spot. All these elements together have created “a hostile environment that makes people think ‘I have no choice but to cross'”. An opinion shared by the Utopia 56 association, on the ASH site: “When you have no more tent or nowhere to go, inevitably, you try to cross.”