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Migrants before Dungeness in UK (November 2021)
Photo: Gareth Fuller / dpa
Since the beginning of the year, more than 9,000 people have crossed the English Channel from France to Great Britain in small boats.
This is the result of analyzes by the British news agency PA, which relies on government data.
In the past week alone, the authorities counted 685 arrivals in five days.
The numbers this month are already well above the level of May 2021, namely more than three times as high.
The crossing seems short, but it is life-threatening
With its rigid asylum policy, the conservative British government wants to deter as many people as possible from coming to the country at all.
Many migrants who have entered the country illegally are no longer to be granted the right to seek asylum.
Instead, they should be sent to Rwanda and be able to apply for asylum there.
A corresponding agreement with the East African country provides for Great Britain to provide the country with appropriate financial resources in exchange.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has already sharply criticized the Rwanda plan: Sending money abroad does not replace the responsibility of states to take in asylum seekers and protect them on their own soil - regardless of their origin, nationality or the way how they got into the country, the organization wrote on Twitter.
Despite the dangers, more and more people have been trying to cross the strait, which is heavily frequented by merchant shipping, for years.
Again and again migrants get into distress at sea.
The French Coast Guard recently rescued 113 shipwrecked people in the English Channel.
asa/dpa
