British and French authorities have taken action following an eightfold increase in the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats and arriving in the United Kingdom between 2018 and 2020.
For three decades, the north coast of France has been the main crossing point for migrants trying to reach the United Kingdom. These migrants have been fleeing famine, dictatorship, and war, and hail from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, and Syria. Until recently almost all migrants arrived at Dover by stowing away in the lorries transiting to the United Kingdom by train or ferry from Calais and Grande-Synthe.
Nevertheless, in recent years increasing numbers of migrants, including children and women, have reached the United Kingdom by crossing the Channel in small boats. Their number increased sharply from around 300 in 2018 to nearly 1,900 in 2019. Since the beginning of 2020, at least 2,500 migrants have successfully crossed, with two record days for arrivals: 166 on Monday 3rd June, and 180 on Sunday 12th July. Additionally, the number of migrants rescued by the French authorities and sent back to France also rose significantly from approximately 200 in 2018 to almost 2,300 in 2019. At least 1000 were rescued in April and May 2020.
BRITAIN AND FRANCE WANT TO DISSUADE MIGRANTS FROM CROSSING
In order to dissuade migrants from trying to cross the Channel, British authorities began deporting to France certain migrants who reached the United Kingdom. These deportations have been denounced by human rights defenders because they fail to respect Chapter 3 of the Dublin Convention which expresses that a member state of the European Union is only allowed to send an asylum seeker back to another member state if there is evidence that he or she was fingerprinted, claimed asylum or spent time in the first country before arriving in the second.
Furthermore, in order to reduce the number of crossings, the French authorities, with the backing of the British authorities, evacuated 519 migrants on Friday 10th July who were living rough in Calais. The official justification for this eviction was that they sought to avoid the creation of a new slum. These migrants were sent to reception centres throughout France but some of them came back directly to Calais. Charities, which are on the ground every day to distribute food, water, clothes, tents, and wood to this vulnerable population, denounced the uselessness of this forced eviction. This type of forced eviction was also criticised by the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing in 2019.
IS THE CHANNEL THE NEXT GRAVEYARD FOR MIGRANTS?
Until now, the number of migrants who have died during their attempt to cross the Channel has seemed low, as only a few deaths were known about. For instance, last year the body of a 31-year-old Iranian woman, who fell from a dinghy during her attempt to cross the Channel, was found in Dutch waters. The number is currently low because the French and British authorities are scrupulously respecting their international commitment to rescue migrants in distress at sea in compliance with International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue.
However, with the constant increase of migrants trying to cross the Channel, the number of them at risk of drowning is also rising. In the short-term, there is a real fear that the Channel could become a graveyard for migrants like the Mediterranean Sea, where at least 19,000 migrants have gone missing or have drowned since 2013.The only way to avoid this new graveyard would be to create legal routes of passage for migrants between France and the United Kingdom in order to allow them to safely claim asylum in the United Kingdom.
Quentin is writing his dissertation about the International Criminal Court and the Darfur case as part
of his Master of laws at Manchester Metropolitan University. Since his volunteering experience
with migrants in Calais in 2015-2016, he has been committed to defending their rights. He is also
campaigning with Oxfam and Amnesty International about human rights and environmental issues.