Attempts to migrate across the Channel on board small boats have doubled in the past three months, the maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea warned on Friday (November 19) in an interview with AFP.
“
We were hoping for the fall to see these numbers drop.
That was not the case at all,
”explained Prefect Philippe Dutrieux.
Read alsoHas migratory pressure really decreased in Calais?
Its services had recorded 15,400 departure attempts and 3,500 passengers rescued over the first eight months of the year - migrants can be counted several times.
"
Today, we have more than doubled these figures: we are at 31,500 migrants having left the coasts and 7,800 migrants having been rescued,
" he said.
The human toll for 2021 has gone from one death on August 31 to a total of “
seven dead or missing
”.
"Cynicism" of the smugglers
Philippe Dutrieux notes “
a new acceleration
” of crossing attempts in November, “
with three particularly intense days with more than 1000 migrants
”. “
The most calamitous
” was on November 3, “
where there were nearly 1,600 migrants counted and we saved nearly 800
”. The maritime prefect explains this phenomenon in particular by "
the cynicism of the organizations that are behind these passages, which throw migrants into the water because it is a business that pays well
". It also highlights "
a geographical problem
", with "
a facade of more than 100 km from which you can start from anywhere
".
“
It's a cat-and-mouse game between the groups that want to leave the beach and the internal security forces. Over 130 km, it is hopeless - in quotes - to imagine intercepting all the boats,
”declared Philippe Dutrieux. In addition, “
when the weather is nice, you can see the cliffs of Dover (located 30 km away) and you have the impression of being able to touch them. So, it is also an incentive to leave, because one cannot imagine the danger that it represents to cross the commercial rail of Pas-de-Calais
”, he underlined.
For years, migrants have flocked to the Hauts-de-France coast in the hope of reaching the United Kingdom, with a surge since 2020 in crossings aboard small boats.
London and Paris have agreed to strengthen their cooperation to try to stop these departures after a rise in tension in the wake of the arrival on November 11 of 1,185 migrants on the English coast, a record.