Nearly 700 migrants crossed the English Channel on Monday August 1 in small boats to reach the English coast, the highest number since the start of the year, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
According to official figures, 696 people aboard 14 small boats have been intercepted making the perilous crossing in one of the busiest straits in the world, bringing the total to more than 17,000 since the start of the year.
Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the British government concluded an agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers who arrived illegally on British soil to this East African country.
Although none of these deportations have yet taken place - a first flight planned for June was canceled after a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) - the candidates to succeed Boris Johnson, Rishi Both Sunak and Liz Truss have vowed to continue this highly controversial policy.
Read alsoMigrants: the number of Channel crossings up sharply this year
28,500 people in 2021
A recent parliamentary report considered that this measure is far from having the expected deterrent effect and pleaded for London to negotiate with Paris the installation on French soil of a center for examining asylum applications.
MEPs pointed out that crossings of the Channel in small boats continue to increase significantly: 28,500 people have arrived in the United Kingdom in 2021, a figure which they believe could reach 60,000 by the end of the year. year.
At least 166 people have died or gone missing attempting the crossing, including 27 in a single day at the end of 2021. According to The Times on Monday, Home Secretary Priti Patel is set for the third consecutive year to pay millions of pounds sterling to France as part of
In the fall of 2021, Priti Patel had, according to the British press, threatened not to pay the more than 60 million euros promised, for lack of results on the French side, to the great astonishment of her French counterpart Gérald Darmanin.
A network believed to have smuggled more than 10,000 migrants from the Middle East and East Africa from France to the UK in the last 12 to 18 months in small inflatable boats has recently been dismantled , resulting in 39 arrests.
This operation, carried out jointly by France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, has been described by Europol as the largest operation targeting a network using small boats.