Migrant policies ‘creating more barriers to child safety', says charity

Independent

6 hours ago

Conditions at the UK-France border are becoming 'more dangerous' for young people, a charity has warned, after it was revealed that at least 15 children died trying to cross the Channel last year.
Young children hide under tables when they think they hear the sound of sirens because they are commonly scared of the police, according to organisation Project Play, who raised concerns of teargas and evictions.
Advocacy coordinator Kate O'Neill, based in northern France, told the PA news agency there has been a rise in police violence which is disproportionately harming children.
She said: 'Ultimately the children we're meeting every day are not safe.
'They're exposed to a level of violence, whether it's they are directly victims of it or the witness.
'We're ultimately at all times putting out fires… the underlying issue is these policies of border securitisation… that are creating more and more barriers to child safety and child protection.'
She said there was hope when the Labour Government took office a year ago that there would be some improvement, adding: 'This is not at all what we've seen.
'They continued to make conditions more difficult and more dangerous.'
She said: 'The smash-the-gangs narrative is not effective and it's harmful because ultimately the only way to put the gangs out of business is to cut the need for them.'
It comes as the grassroots organisation published a report that said at least 15 children died trying to cross the English Channel last year, more than the total of the past four years combined.
The charity that offers play services, parental support and safeguarding casework to children aged 0-18 living in sites around Calais and Dunkirk, documented rising violence, trauma and child deaths linked with UK border policies and funding to the French to ramp up enforcement in 2024.
In February this year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper agreed to re-purpose £7 million of cash to French counterparts to bolster enforcement action on the nation's coastline to tackle Channel crossings.
'What we really need to see is some cross-border accountability for the incidents and the fatalities in the Channel,' Ms O'Neill said.
The campaigner said one of the main calls as a result of the group's research is for an official source of the number of deaths and information on these deaths to be recorded.
Figures for the report came from International Organisation for Migration, Calais Migrant Solidarity and other networks in northern France.
'We don't have the identities of all of them.
'In fact, these deaths are going unrecorded and unreported,' she said.
One in five crossing the English Channel between 2018 and 2024 were children, according to Project Play.
Meanwhile, Ms O'Neill said tactics for French police to intervene in crossing attempts in shallow waters is already happening despite the changes needed to the rules to allow this having not yet come into force.
She said: 'This is not a new tactic… it's something that has been happening for a long time in Calais and surrounding areas.
'My feeling is that this is increasing based on the number of testimonies we're receiving from children and their families recently.'
'It's really dangerous because the children often are in the middle of the boats.'
But on Friday, Ms Cooper said intervention in French waters was 'critical'.
'That's one of the big things that has changed, the way in which the boats operate in shallow waters,' she said.
'We have to have the action on those because that's that is where the prevention needs to take place.'
Ms Cooper also pressed the case for introducing the new criminal offence of endangering life at sea under the Government's Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, after seeing 'awful cases' of children being crushed to death in the middle of overcrowded boats.
Project Play worked with more than 1,000 children in 2024, and believes in the last few weeks there have been a 'very large amount' of children they worked with who were born and went to school in a European country, such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
Ms O'Neill said families' visas granted five or 10 years ago in other European countries for refuge have since expired and they have not been allowed to stay, which she said is behind the increase in crossings to the UK.
She said since Brexit meant the UK left the Dublin regulation, the country is a 'viable option'.
The European Union law set out that the first EU country an asylum seeker entered was responsible for processing their claim, and the UK can no longer send asylum seekers back to other member states since leaving the bloc.
Ms O'Neill said: 'Most people we're speaking to, that is why they're going.
'They're not going to claim benefits from the UK or to do anything for free, but it's the next nearest safe place they can be.
'This needs to be addressed… as a European-wide issue instead of just a UK-France thing.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
'Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in Northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs.'