Tear gas and surveillance on the coast as Channel migrant deaths rise

Nine people have already drowned attempting the journey this year. That compares with 12 for the whole of 2023. The latest to die was a seven-year-old Iraqi girl, one week ago, when a smuggler’s boat capsized on a French canal. Wimereux, south of Calais, has emerged as a focal point for the smugglers.

Hundreds of migrants gather on clear nights in the hope of a successful crossing. Critics say that a moreilitarised coastline is compelling people to take ever greater risks to cross the Channel. Cameras will be used to monitor migrants in the French city of Lille. It is the first time the cameras have been used in the city, which has a population of 1.

2 million. The city is also home to a large number of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. Potel said she was most worried that crossings were becoming more dangerous. She cited 40 confrontations on beaches so far this year between police and smugglers.

She said teams were now able to identify and intercept boats and other equipment long before they reached the coast. But Potel expressed concern about “worrying trends emerging this year. Potel said the smugglers were increasingly supplying extremely poor-quality boats. Almost 40% of crossing attempts failed.

In 2023 it is already nine. Louis-Xavier Thirode, a government official in charge of security for the whole of northern France, acknowledged that there was no quick fix to the migrant issue. The three-year funding deal with the UK, Thirode added, transformed efforts to clamp down on small-boat crossings. The UK Home Office said its co-operation with the French had already prevented a significant number of crossing attempts this year.

But local charities involved in assisting migrants in distress argue that it is wrong to lay all the blame for the deaths on the smuggling gangs. Migrants are now so close to reaching the UK that they would willingly put themselves in even greater danger on the French coast. It’s not a deterrent, but it is actually going to make it more dangerous, said Julie Hernandez from the Utopia 56 organisation. Wimereux, Mayor Jean-Luc Dubaele was also keen to put the British and French police efforts in a wider context.

If the English solve this problem, then we’ll have taken a big step,” said Dubaele. And if that doesn’t happen, it will continue, he said. The mayor turned his head back towards the White Cliffs of Dover.

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