More than 100,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats since 2018, despite the UK government’s determination to multiply backlash in its policy against illegal immigration.
• Also read: Burma: At least 17 dead when Rohingya refugee boat sinks
• Also read: 41 migrants missing after shipwreck in Mediterranean Sea
• Also read: London announces deal with Turkey to “dismantle smuggling networks”.
According to the British Home Office, 755 migrants were spotted making the dangerous crossing to the English coast on Thursday – a daily record since the beginning of the year.
According to an AFP census, those numbers total 100,715 since the UK started counting these crossings, which were mainly operated from France, in 2018. The lockdown of the port of Calais and the Eurotunnel terminal, which made it difficult or even impossible to smuggle migrants into trucks, had led smugglers to choose the sea route.
Exceeding that threshold coincided with a new disappointment for the Conservative government when it used one of the key tools of its policy to tackle illegal immigration: the deployment of a barge on the quayside in south-west England to reduce illegal immigration accommodation bills for asylum seekers.
Due to the presence of legionella – bacteria that can cause a respiratory infection, legionellosis – in the water supply system, 39 boarding school guests who arrived on board this week left the barge on Friday “as a precaution”, the interior ministry said.
No one on board has symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease, an Interior Ministry spokesman said, assuring that the “health” and “well-being” of the residents was “top priority”.
There is also “no direct risk” for the local population, as the bacteria have been detected on the barge and not in the water cycle that feeds it.
After weeks of delays, especially with fire safety checks, the first 15 asylum seekers arrived on the boat on Monday, despite numerous criticisms from human rights groups.
After all, the barge named “Bibby Stockholm” is supposed to take up to 500 asylum seekers.
Rescued from the water
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to “stop the boats” as polls predict a victory for the opposition Labor Party in next year’s general election.
As one of the busiest straits in the world, the English Channel is regularly the scene of fatal shipwrecks of small boats thronged by migrants after paying smugglers high prices for the passage. In November 2021, 27 people lost their lives. At least four people died in a shipwreck last December.
According to the UK Home Office, 17 migrants were rescued on Thursday after falling overboard.
Despite Brexit’s promise to “take back control of borders”, the number of migrants who managed to arrive on British soil in small boats hit a record 45,000 in 2022.
Year-to-date they are at 15,826, which suggests a downtrend.
After adopting rhetoric that is very harsh on migrants, the Conservative government has multiplied its announcements to tackle the phenomenon in recent days.
He also revealed this week that he has assembled a team to crack down on “lawyers who help migrants exploit the migration system” in the UK.
With this help, he also increased his financial support for France in patrolling the coasts.
A new law, which came into force in July and has been denounced at the United Nations, now bans migrants who have arrived on British soil illegally from seeking asylum in the UK.
It envisages their deportation to their country or to third countries such as Rwanda, a project currently blocked by the courts.