Three years after the worst migrant shipwreck in the Channel, crossings are more deadly than ever

Thirty-one white roses were thrown into the port of Dunkirk, northern France, on Saturday, November 23. Thirty-one, the number of people who died or went missing at sea on the night of November 23, 2021, off the coast of Calais. More than 200 people gathered in Dunkirk to mark the third anniversary of the worst migrant shipwreck in the English Channel since the explosion, at the end of 2018, of the so-called “small boat” phenomenon, the makeshift rubber dinghies aboard which migrants attempt to reach England. “France will not let the English Channel become a graveyard,” promised French President Emmanuel Macron, on the day of the tragedy. Although the year is not yet over, at least 72 migrants have died trying to reach England by boat, according to the Pas-de-Calais prefecture. This is more than the total number of people who died in the Channel over the last five years combined. Has France got used to the tragedy?

On the evening of November 24, 2021, Macron and the then British prime minister, Boris Johnson, agreed on the “urgency of stepping up joint efforts” in the fight against crossings. By 2021, more than 28,500 people had managed to reach England by small boat. The year 2022 was a record year, with almost 46,000 crossings. There was a slight dip in 2023, but, since the start of 2024, no fewer than 34,000 people have crossed the English Channel in frail boats.

They are Afghans, Iranians, Eritreans, Vietnamese, Turks, Syrians, Sudanese and Iraqis. According to UK Home Office data analyzed by Oxford University’s Immigration Observatory, 93% of those who crossed the English Channel between 2018 and March 2024 applied for asylum. And so far, around three-quarters have been granted protection.

‘Breaking the logistics chain’

Most pay between €1,500 and €2,500 for the crossing. “The networks of smugglers – mainly Iraqi-Kurds – buy the engines and inflatable boats in China. They are delivered to Turkey and then taken to Germany for storage before the crossings,” explained Xavier Delrieu, head of the French agency for the fight against migrant smuggling, whose resources were increased after the 2021 shipwreck and which dismantles between 20 and 30 people smuggling networks each year. “We’re trying to break the logistical chain, but it’s a bit like drug trafficking: No matter how hard you try to dismantle the networks, they grow back,” admitted the commissioner, who also noted that investigations are becoming more complex as the number of victims increases.

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