At least six people have died this Saturday as a result of the sinking of the fragile boat in which they were sailing through the English Channel towards the United Kingdom. It was also feared for the lives of up to four other migrants who would have embarked at dawn at different points on the French coast near the towns of Calais, Sangatte and Dunkerque, encouraged by the good weather and stable sea conditions forecast in the weather forecasts for weekend.
“This morning a migrant boat capsized off Calais. My thoughts are with the victims,” ??French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on social media. The British head of the Interior, Suella Braverman, echoed the feeling of mourning at the “tragic loss of life in the channel” and highlighted the contribution of the United Kingdom Border Force in the rescue and salvage operation after a terrible accident that took place in French territorial waters.
The joint operation of the services of both countries made it possible to rescue 58 individuals who were trying to reach the English coast. Some were carried on stretchers to the port of Dover, the main trade and tourist link to Calais. A volunteer who witnessed and intervened in the rescue from a patrol boat detailed to Reuters how the survivors tried to bail out water from the boat with their shoes. “There were too many people on board,” Anne Thorel told the news agency.
The alarm was raised at dawn when a patrol boat sighted a refugee boat in danger of capsizing near the French coast. The risk situation turned out to be of a greater magnitude, when the coastguards went into action, around 6 in the morning (local and Spanish time), according to Franck Dhersin, mayor of Téteghem, a town near Dunkerque. “Several boats were facing serious difficulties. Unfortunately, bodies were discovered near Sangatte,” the mayor confirmed to the media.
In the morning it was reported that six individuals had been airlifted to a hospital in Calais. From this group, a young Afghan man, between the ages of 25 and 30, was identified as one of the first certified victims. Next week marks the second year of the Taliban takeover of Kabul, which precipitated the allies’ disastrous departure from Afghanistan.
It is the second tragedy in terms of the number of deaths that has occurred on the dangerous sea crossing from France to England since 2021. In November of that year, 31 immigrants drowned in the freezing temperatures of the Channel after issuing distress signals that the services of UK and French emergency were slow to respond. A later report of the disaster confirmed that the boat had entered British waters. Twenty-seven bodies were recovered, including that of a pregnant woman.
There is no official data on the total number of individuals who lose their lives en route to the UK. But an investigation by the Institute of Race Relations, published in 2020, estimated that almost 300 asylum seekers, including 36 minors, died crossing the English Channel in a vehicle, on board a ship or through the tunnel that connects both countries. since 1999.
The International Organization for Migration, dependent on the UN, estimates that 2,090 people have perished in the Mediterranean so far this year. Data from Frontex, the European Union border agency, estimates that 89,000 migrants completed the sea crossing from Libya and Tunisia to Italy or Greece in the first seven months of 2023.
For its part, the British Government has registered the entry into the country via the Canal route of more than 15,800 asylum seekers, including 755 this Thursday in 14 boats. That morning, the Border Force mobilized resources to help the passengers of one of the inflatable boats and internal sources suggested on Saturday that they have rescued people from the sea seven times throughout the week, although there were no arrivals from 6 to 9 Due to bad weather. On Friday the symbolic mark of 100,000 immigrants arrived in England by boat since 2018 was crossed, when the British Government began to publish this record.
That same Friday, the Interior Department proceeded to evacuate the migrants confined to the Bibby Stockholm dormitory barge after the detection of legionella bacteria in the water system. The eviction of the only 39 asylum seekers who boarded this week out of the estimated fifty has exposed the vulnerability of the government plan to control the arrival of migrants and reduce the cost of their maintenance.
