More than 16,000 migrants have made it over the Channel to the UK this year, almost double those who made it in the whole of 2020. The British government talks about sending boats back but since Brexit, returning migrants to France has become harder, and that is attracting more migrants to attempt the crossing.
The good weather on Thursday saw more migrants attempting to cross the Channel. 120 migrants were rescued, confirmed the French maritime authorities. One migrant was found unconscious on a sinking boat and flown to hospital by helicopter; he later died.
French maritime authorities have rescued another 108 migrants attempting to cross the Channel between Britain and France. The migrants were in four separate boats which got into trouble near the French coast.
This year and last have been full of reports of the ever-increasing numbers of migrants who are attempting to cross the Channel for a life in the UK. But as immigration rhetoric hardens, is this pushing migrants and asylum seekers still further into the shadows?
Despite tougher measures on both sides of the English Channel, asylum-seekers are still trying to make the dangerous crossing from France to the United Kingdom, in an attempt to find a better future.
212 migrants were picked up by the UK Border Force on Sunday. An additional 238 migrants were reportedly prevented by French authorities from completing their crossing. The latest figures come as the UK prepares to debate a new nationality and border bill in parliament.
More than 40 UK rights organizations sent a public letter to British Home Secretary Priti Pratel on Monday. They were united in condemning the introduction of 24-hour GPS monitoring of people on immigration bail in an expansion of surveillance powers that has been done without any consultation process.
Care places for unaccompanied child migrants in the English county of Kent, which is where many migrants who cross the Channel first land, have reached capacity. Authorities in Kent have refused to take any more children prompting the British government to house them in a much-criticized facility.
Four migrants were rescued on Tuesday off the French coast as they were trying to reach England with the aid of oars and paddles. A little earlier, 29 other migrants were picked up by the authorities after their boat broke up on the breakwater near Dunkirk.
A total of 113 migrants on seven small boats arrived safely in the UK port of Dover on Monday. About 72 were stopped from crossing by the French authorities.
The French authorities discovered a migrant boat on the beach at Quend in Normandy on Sunday. The beach is almost 90 kilometers further south than the normal crossings from Calais and Boulogne towards the UK.
The UK Home Secretary Priti Patel is facing "serious questions" from a parliamentary committee after claiming that migrant accommodation in former army barracks was "safe."