British ministers urge ‘stop playing politics’ at Canal crossings | refugees

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More lives will be lost in the canal unless urgent action is taken to stop “playing politics with people’s lives” and ministers were warned as desperate refugees vowed to continue attempting the perilous journey.

The grim prediction came as investigators tried to identify the bodies of at least 27 people, including a pregnant woman and three children believed to be mostly Kurds from Iraq, who drowned on Wednesday.

Images of their shriveled gray rubber boat floating in the sea recreated the horror of Thursday’s tragedy, while a chilling distress call emerged as a French coast guard worker alerted ships to multiple bodies in the water. But members of parliament, experts and activists from various parties have raised fears that the tragedy could be repeated.

Residents of makeshift camps around Calais and Dunkirk told the Guardian that hundreds of people have traveled to northern France via Belarus after a crisis on its border with Poland. Many vowed to continue with their plans to cross over to the UK in search of a better life – and throughout Thursday, new arrivals continued to come ashore in Dover.

French coast guard call after boat capsize

Boris Johnson wrote, Thursday evening, to French President Emmanuel Macron outlining five steps to avoid a recurrence of drownings. They include joint patrols to prevent boats from leaving French shores; Technology such as sensors and radar. mutual maritime patrols and airborne surveillance; Better intelligence sharing to catch and prosecute people smugglers; and a bilateral return agreement with France, as well as talks for a return agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Damien Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone, told the BBC that more deaths would occur if the French did not step up their patrols on the northern beaches. Home Secretary Priti Patel said it was up to the French to take action to prevent further tragedies.

Humanitarian organizations agreed on the potential for more deaths but disagreed on potential solutions, instead pressing the UK government to introduce new safe and legal routes as well as to strengthen existing ones such as resettlement schemes. Beth Gardiner Smith, CEO of Safe Passage International, has called for Patel to resign and warned that more tragedy could follow.

“More and more people are risking the frigid and frightening journey across the Channel in small, unstable boats since the government closed safe routes to the UK last year,” she said. “By choosing to engage in politics with people’s lives, the government has failed to prevent people from taking the risk of crossing and that is the result.”

In the shadows of an abandoned warehouse in Grand Synthes, east of Calais, Chevanne told reporters he had traveled from Iraq to France and would continue his plans to cross. “We just want to live. We are not afraid to cross. It is better to cross.”

The vast majority of the drowning victims appear to be Kurds from Iraq, including 17 men, seven women – one of whom is pregnant – and three children. Two survivors, one Iraqi and one Somali, were treated for exhaustion and hypothermia at a Calais hospital.

In Lille, the public prosecutor opened a criminal investigation, with five men arrested in connection with the incident. The fifth suspect, detained Thursday morning, was driving a car with German number plates and “bought inflatable boats in Germany”.

Draw

The boat, which was carrying 29 people, is believed to have set off from Lone Plage near Dunkirk. They were most likely camping in the sand dunes near Grande-Synthe.

People waiting to cross at Grand Synthe told the Guardian that many of them arrived via Belarus, which has been accused of creating a border crisis with neighboring Poland in retaliation for EU sanctions. The increase in the number of people arriving in Calais via Belarus underscores the increasingly complex picture European governments face in dealing with the refugee crisis.

The Home Office refused to comment on the impact of the Belarusian crisis on immigration flows, while the UK government doubled down on its stance with the French. Johnson, who held a Cobra meeting on Wednesday to discuss the incident, noted that the French government had not always dealt with the problem of crossings “in a way that we think the situation deserves”.

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