In the Channel Strait, migrant crossings by “small boat” are increasing

If despair were a means of locomotion, it might be this large dolphin-shaped buoy on which three migrants were found at 9 a.m. in early August in the English Channel. Or this garden pool made up of big blue sausages: on board, four people were paddling with shovels, heading for England, when they were intercepted.

These “low cost” attempts are often made by exiles from the Horn of Africa, who do not have the means to pay the 3,000 to 5,000 euros passing through. « small boat », from the name of these small motorized boats of fortune launched to the assault of the North Sea by the networks of Kurdish and Iranian smugglers. Three thousand euros is the basic rate, 5,000 euros, the VIP service, including life jacket and car transport from the camp of Grande-Synthe (Nord) or Calais (Pas-de-Calais) to beaches of the Opal Coast.

In recent days, several crossings have been interrupted. More than 80 migrants, including at least four children, were rescued Monday, September 7 during five separate operations as they attempted to cross the Channel, said the maritime prefecture. By September 2, 116 other people had been recovered.

First crossing in 2015

At the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais, we recognize that the good summer weather has favored a “Upsurge in irregular attempts to cross the Channel from the French coast”, with figures which have exploded this year: 1,468 people have passed in the month of August alone, 5,600 since the beginning of the year, according to figures from the British Home Office.

In France, the prefecture speaks rather “Events” : at the end of August, 719 were listed, to which must be added the 144 discoveries of boats on the coast by the police, as so many failed attempts. “To summarize, one in two starts could have been thwarted in a context of doubling of attempts since the beginning of the year. “

In the memory of a police officer, the first crossing attributable to a network of smugglers dates from 2015, and this young French fisherman David Turpin, recruited by the Albanian mafia to smuggle dozens of illegals into his boat. A year later, Iranian asylum seekers, again supported by locals, made several crossings, and the technique of maritime passage prospered. Since then, it is the “boat race”. In coastal stores, on the Leboncoin site, dealers are constantly solicited by smugglers, and sometimes even condemned for complicity, when they sell too many zodiacs in cash without warning the investigators.

You have 68.74% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.

–