TEN IMAGES OF MIGRATION AT THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

In 2022, more than 45,000 people reached UK shores by crossing the English Channel in small rubber boats. According to official data, 6 of 10 would be recognized as refugees fleeing from war or dangerous countries. With no shelter and harsh conditions, people survive as homeless in the city of Calais or at the settlements along the northern coast of France, until they cross. At the photograph, a homeless migrant covers himself with an isothermal blanket, in Calais on April 6, 2023.

During the first week of April, more than 1,000 people reached English shores by crossing the channel. A dangerous route with precarious boats that are carrying more and more people: 41 people per boat was the average last year, 28 in 2021, 13 in 2020 and 11 people per boat in 2019, according to British government data. The image shows a Dunkirk resident in front of the remains of a rubber boat, on the beach of Mardyck, April 8th, 2023.

Video-surveillance, evictions, drones, helicopters, thermovision cameras, tear gas and increased police controls, with an additional 540 million euros for the next 3 years from the agreements of the bilateral meeting between the presidents Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron on March 10th in Paris. At the picture, the fences around the port of Calais.

“They took everything, also my medicines,” claims Ahmed, an Iraqi migrant who has been evicted several times in Calais. He wants to cross the Channel to meet his brother in England. At the image, the rocks that the local authorities deposited at the beginning of March to deter homeless people on the Gironde quay, in Calais on April 7th, 2023.

During the whole winter, ‘The Woodyard’, a project managed by the collective ‘L’Auberge des Migrants’, distributes 1.5 tons of firewood per day in the camps and living places around Calais and Grand-Synthe. 600 tons last winter, from November to May. “People make fire to warm up, cook, dry clothes and also socialize. During the winter it is very hard if you have no shelter”, explains a member of the organization.

‘Never travel without engine, stay away from the big vessels, check the wind and sea conditions before going out and never try to go by swimming’, are some of the precautions included in this brochure provided by the humanitarian organizations in Grande-Synthe. “Since 2018, the French government is putting more and more pressure on the coast. So people go further to try to cross, increasing navigation time and making the journey more dangerous”, warns Thomas Chambon, coordinator of Maraudes-Littorales at Utopia 56, an organization that monitors the coast with 24-hour humanitarian aid.

Families with children, young people and elderly survive in tents and plastic shelters until they can pay for the crossing. As a result of constant evictions of the living places in the Calais region -more than 1,600 documented by the Human Rights Observer organization in the last year – waiting areas and settlements have also moved to other regions of the coast. At the photograpfy, a woman with her daughters in the Grande-Synthe camp, on April 8th, 2023.

Rural areas, trees near the coast and dunes are the most common places where migrants hide until they pay and get instructions to leave. “Without legal and safe routes, without caring for people, without information and without accommodation, the people is pushed into illegality and traffickers”, say a humanitarian from the NGO Utopia 56.

Young people and those who cannot afford to pay the whole price for the crossing are often used to drive the boats. They assume a higher risk of being arrested when they arrive in England. In the picture, five young people walk towards a centre where they can charge their mobile phone, eat or take a shower, near the port of Calais.

Two young men crossing the fence that separates the camp from the railway tracks, in Grande-Synthe on April 7th, 2023.