Half a thousand migrants have arrived in the UK by smuggling across the English Channel hours after a boat sank off the coast of northern France, killing six Afghans on Saturday morning. At least 58 individuals were rescued from the water in a joint operation by the French and British rescue services.

A total of 509 people reached the English coast in ten small boats, in what has turned out to be three consecutive early mornings of intense traffic between the two countries, according to provisional data from the UK Home Office.

After a stoppage in migrant traffic from August 6 to 9, attributed to the rain and strong prevailing winds those nights, the flow of crossings intensified as of Thursday the 10th. That day saw the maximum arrivals of 2023, with 756 people sailing from the European Union in 14 inflatable boats. The movement was reduced to 343 passengers in six boats on Friday the 11th and led to the tragic disaster on Saturday. Some 60 migrants had boarded the damaged boat. Some bailed out the water with their shoes trying in vain to prevent it from sinking, according to witnesses to the rescue.

The British political opposition and NGOs ask the Government of Rishi Sunak to facilitate safe access routes to the United Kingdom for nationals of countries at war or at risk of persecution. The dead and most of the survivors of Saturday’s shipwreck are from Afghanistan, where the fundamentalist Taliban regime has ruled since the departure of the allied powers exactly two years ago.

The conservative Executive deployed a battery of harsh measures against irregular immigration in the so-called “week against the boats.” But the prime minister’s star initiatives collided with incompetence in their execution, in addition to the predictability of good weather in August.

The inauguration of the Bibby Stockholm barge – which is moored in the port of Portland (southern Dorset county) with the purpose of confining more than 500 asylum seekers in its 222 cabins – was stalled from the beginning. Several groups refused to board and those that did, a total of 39 asylum seekers, were evacuated on Friday due to a health risk. The legionella bacteria had been detected in the water system on Monday and the Interior proceeded on Friday to evacuate the so-called ‘floating jail’ as a “precautionary measure”.

Meanwhile, the boats continue to reach the English coast through the busy Canal, although Sunak maintains his slogan of “stopping the boats” among his most repeated promises ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for 2024. This week the peak of 100,000 migrants arrived was exceeded. in boats since 2018, when the British government began to count the data daily.