Preventing small boats from depositing their cargo of human misery on England’s shores has been a constant obsession of British politicians since around 2018, when security measures made it virtually impossible for migrants to stow away on Eurostar trains through the Channel Tunnel.
As traffic shifted to small inflatable boats, deaths by drowning increased. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 40 migrants have died in the English Channel so far this year. The worst incident occurred on September 3rd, when 12 people perished, most of them refugees from Eritrea. It was the highest number of fatalities in one night since November 24th, 2021, when the bodies of 27 Iraqi Kurds, including six women and a little girl, were fished out of the English Channel.
The verbatim transcript of hours of desperate pleas from the boat that sank in 2021 to the Regional Operational Centre for Surveillance and Rescue (known by the French acronym CROSS) at Gris-Nez in the Pas-de-Calais department created a scandal when it was leaked to Le Monde newspaper one year later.
The transcript of those phone calls has been widely reported, but it is worth repeating.
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At 1.51am, the French SAMU medical emergency hotline transferred the first call from the doomed boat to the CROSS: “Please, please! ... We need help, please. Help us, please,” the caller said.
Instead of dispatching a rescue mission, the CROSS contacted the English rescue service at Dover, telling them the boat was 0.6 nautical miles from English waters. The migrants called again while still in French waters. Crying and screams could be heard in the background. Just before 2.30am, the CROSS called Dover to say the boat “is in your zone”.
When the SAMU transferred yet another call, the CROSS operator identified as Fanny R told them: “They’re in English waters now anyway. If they keep calling, tell them to call 999.” Migrants on the boat called 15 more times between 2.43am and 4.22am. At 3.30am, a pleading passenger said they were “in the water”. Fanny R retorted: “Yes, but you’re in English waters.”
The line cut and Fanny R made a sarcastic aside: “You don’t get it. You’re not gonna be saved ... I didn’t ask you to go.”
“We’re in the water. Finished. Finished. Please help us. Help us ... We’re dying. We’re in the sea ... it’s cold,” said another migrant, pleading for a helicopter after 4am.
Seven military personnel from the CROSS and two navy officers from the Flamant rescue ship were eventually placed under investigation in connection with the 27 drowning deaths, for failure to assist persons in danger. The investigation continues.
The French and British concluded agreements at Sangatte in 2000, at Le Touquet in 2003 and at Sandhurst in 2018 that effectively subcontracted the enforcement of British migration rules to the French. French attempts to shift responsibility to Dover that night in 2021 are indicative of the resentment sparked by cross-Channel migration over the past quarter century.
In March 2023 the UK promised €543 million to France if it would stop more boats. The British say the French are not fulfilling their end of the bargain. French commentators say their country has been reduced to the unenviable role played by Turkey and Libya, who are paid to stop migrants from attempting to reach Europe.
On the day the 12 Eritreans drowned, outgoing interior minister Gérald Darmanin blamed the “attraction” of the UK “where you can work without papers and where you’re unlikely to be thrown out”.
The number of small boats crossing the Channel has increased from 8,400 in 2020 to more than 21,000 already this year. French police cut holes in boats found on beaches and sometimes use tear gas to disperse migrants. French authorities say the result has been to double the number of passengers on dangerously overcrowded boats, from an average 30 in 2022, to about 60 at present.
[ Channel drownings: what happened and who is to blame?Opens in new window ]
Failed states and cynical traffickers may be the root cause of the migrant crisis but Britain and France claim to defend human rights and are among the world’s richest countries. Their inhumane treatment of migrants is a disgrace. There must be a better solution than leaving them to drown. A safe and legal path for immigration to Britain would be a start.
Two days after the latest mass drowning, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier as prime minister. Barnier governs at the pleasure of Marine Le Pen’s far right Rassemblement National, which could join leftists in bringing down his government at any moment the far right sees fit.
But Barnier’s hard line on immigration pleases the RN. As a candidate in the last presidential election, he advocated a moratorium on immigration and shocked those who considered him a staunch European by proposing that France opt out of EU regulations on immigration.
Barnier is best known as Mr Brexit, for having negotiated the conditions of the UK’s departure from the EU. In the wake of the September 3rd mass drowning, there were renewed calls for a treaty between the UK and EU on migration. Who better to negotiate it than Michel Barnier?