Latest news with #Utopia56
The Guardian
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
French plans to stop small boats will lead to more deaths, says charity
Plans by French police to enter the sea to stop small boats carrying UK-bound asylum seekers willcause more deaths and will be challenged in the European courts, a French charity has said. Arthur Dos Santos, the coordinator of the refugee charity Utopia 56, said there would be an increase in the number of people who would take 'desperate' measures to reach the UK. The official, based in Calais, said the charity was examining the possibility of a legal challenge in the European courts to stop the tactics. Government sources have told the Guardian that French police would be authorised to tackle boats within 300 metres of the shore and in nearby waterways. The strategy aims to be ready in time for the Franco-British summit, which begins on 8 July. This coincides with the state visit to London of Emmanuel Macron, the French president. Over the past few days, French police have waded into the sea to stop asylum seekers from boarding boats, increasing speculation that police are already using the tactic. In one incident this week at Gravelines beach near Dunkirk, officers were shown waist deep in water, using CS gas, riot shields and batons, as they attempted to force a boat to return to the beach. Dos Santos said the French plan to harden its tactics against asylum-seekers and smugglers would result in more deaths. 'When police enter the sea, it will cause more deaths, more people will drown as they try to get away before being caught and forced back to the beach. There will be more violence, as some people fight back, and the people attempting to reach England will find other ways to try to get to the UK. This will not stop them, but it will make the crossings much more dangerous,' he said. The scheme is intended to give the French authorities the power to halt dinghies that 'taxi' up to beaches from nearby waterways. Until now, guidelines prevent French police from intervening offshore unless it is to rescue passengers in distress. In practice, the policy means officers can stop boats leaving the beach by puncturing them, but are restricted once they are in the water. Dos Santos said the tactic would face legal challenges in the European courts, with lawyers examining human rights laws and the UN convention on the law of the sea. 'This policy will be taken to the European courts. We will look very closely at this, as will other organisations,' he said. A British charity that operates in France told the Guardian two weeks ago it planed to explore possible legal challenges to stop the tactic. Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, said: 'When the last Tory government tried to do pushbacks in the Channel, Care4Calais initiated a legal challenge and won. Any attempt to introduce interceptions in French waters must face the same level of resistance.'
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Two people die attempting to cross Channel in small boats
One person has died trying to cross the Channel in an overloaded boat, after another person died earlier attempting the same journey, according to the French authorities. In the latest incident, 15 people were rescued after a boat containing 40 people picked up more migrants on the coast of Gravelines, in northern France, at around 3am on Thursday. Three people were rescued from the water and 12 others on board the dinghy asked for assistance, the French coastguard said. One of the people rescued was unconscious and was declared dead after resuscitation attempts failed. It followed a rescue operation after reports that a group of people had tried to board a dinghy in the Equihen-Plage area, in northern France, shortly after 9am on Wednesday. Two people were rescued from the water, with one suffering from hypothermia while the other was in cardiac arrest. The French NGO Utopia 56 posted on social media about that incident saying: 'This morning a young man set sail in a makeshift boat hoping to reach the UK and claim asylum like hundreds of others. He did not survive. A new victim of this border and the deadly policies implemented.' Of the latest death the organisation said on X: 'In two days to people died.' The two deaths occurred after an eight-day gap in crossings between 11 and 18 March. According to government data, on Wednesday 289 people crossed in five boats – an average of 57 people per boat. The International Organisation for Migration recorded eight migrants dead or missing in the Channel between 1 January and 8 March this year. The latest deaths bring the toll so far this year to at least 10. A UK government spokesperson said: 'We are aware of reports of an incident in the Channel in French territorial waters. French authorities are leading the response and investigation. We will not be commenting further at this stage.'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What a single day of migrant distress calls tells us about evolving smuggling tactics
At 16 minutes past midnight on Feb 9, the first distress call came through. Forty-five migrants were attempting to cross the Channel but encountered trouble and called the number given to them by a French non-profit. This alert was one of 20 that Utopia 56 would receive over the next 24 hours. Added together, they concerned 655 people trying to make the treacherous crossing. The actual figures, though, are likely higher. Some 60 migrants made it to the UK that day on two boats, according to Home Office data, while others may not have called for help. The following morning, the bodies of two men washed up on shore. The Telegraph has mapped the distress calls that day to show the growing stretch of coastline from which people smugglers and migrants are setting sail in order to evade detection from increased patrols, offering a snapshot of the challenge facing French and British authorities in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. They have also adopted increasingly dangerous tactics – making the task even greater. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, visited Bruno Retailleau, her hardline French counterpart, on Thursday to discuss what can be done. While she was there, Mr Retailleau announced that he was seeking a law change to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water. French law currently prohibits police from tackling a migrant boat once it has entered the water, leaving officers only able to launch a rescue operation. Smugglers are using increasingly drastic tactics to avoid being stopped. This includes sending densely packed boats from multiple locations, as reflected in the distress calls, moving far beyond Calais, the narrowest point of the Channel at about 20 miles wide. Departures now run as far north as Dunkirk near the border to Belgium – and sometimes even from Belgium – and as far south as the charming seaside town of Berck, across the Channel from Eastbourne in the UK. Some smugglers have also moved further inland, attempting to travel from the narrow canals of northern France that flow out into the Channel. Others continue to sneak migrants on lorries parked in Dunkirk, which then drive down to the port of Calais and load onto ferries bound for Dover. The fast-evolving tactics mean British and French authorities must contend with more territory, which is becoming near-impossible to police in its entirety: it is not feasible to completely seal off any route. Discoveries of new departure points and routes often occur once corpses wash up, as it was on Feb 10 when the bodies of two men were found on the sandy beaches of Berck. Last March, a seven-year-old girl died when a boat overturned in a canal in Gravelines, just next to Dunkirk. Feyrouz Lajili, a field coordinator in Calais for Doctors Without Borders, said: 'What we see is that more reinforcement of the border doesn't deter people from crossing, but what happens is that people take more and more risks; and more and more people die. 'There are more and more new methods to cross. Now boats are leaving even further south, where the distance can double or triple according to where you leave, which makes the crossings even more dangerous.' This is reflected in the numbers: 2024 was the deadliest year on record for Channel crossings with at least 80 deaths, including a four-month-old infant, according to the UN's migration agency. With deaths ticking up, some migrants believe the lorry-to-ferry option will be safer. Aland and Shino, a couple from Iraq hoping to find refuge in the UK, have attempted this route a few times, as directed by smugglers to whom they paid €10,000 (£8,266). Shino, 33, said: 'One time, when the driver discovered us, he said to me: 'Sorry, you didn't have luck this time; you'll have to try again.'' What they pay smugglers for is information – where to go, when to go – as well as support to break into the truck and lock the doors behind them. They can make as many attempts as they're willing to stomach, as long as they have money to cover expenses such as food. The couple will, in the end, pay smugglers the same amount regardless of whether it takes one, or multiple, attempts to arrive in the UK – an arrangement meant as a guarantee for both parties. Smugglers continue to improvise as French police have deployed more patrols and surveillance technology, bolstered by about £500 million in funding from the UK. Many roads that turn off toward the coastline have police vans parked on bends. Officers have resorted to puncturing or otherwise sabotaging the boats so they cannot inflate. Smugglers sometimes float the boat away from the shore with only a few people on board. They then rev the engine and pick up migrants swimming in the cold water to avoid being spotted by drones looking for large groups, in a method referred to as 'taxi boats'. Boarding the boat this way is a terrifying experience for many people, some of whom sustain injuries or die in the process. 'Deaths are happening closer to shore,' said Ms Lajili, whose organisation routinely treats migrants with cuts, bruises and broken limbs from these rushed departures. She added: 'People are dying at the moment when they are trying to leave, because there is a big moment of panic.' It is this tactic that the new French initiative is targeting. The rule change will allow police to use their own boats for the first time, and tackle migrants out of the vessels. With ramped-up border enforcement, smugglers have also begun overloading the boats with more migrants in hopes of getting a larger batch to the UK in one go, as they are typically paid only after migrants arrive. Authorities have found as many as 90 people crammed onto a single vessel designed to hold far less in weight, increasing the chance of capsizing at sea. This is reflected in government data. In 2024, almost 37,000 migrants arrived in the UK on about 690 boats – more than four times the number of people crossing the Channel in 2020, but on roughly the same number of vessels. Adil, another Iraqi Kurd whom Aland and Shino met in France, also previously tried to go by boat, but police shot tear gas and ruptured the vessel. The violence and danger pushed him toward the lorry route, which he has tried a few times, also guided by a smuggler. Adil spent his 28th birthday squeezed into a freezer truck full of apples. Police caught him seven hours later in Calais just before the lorry was due to load onto the ferry bound for Dover. 'When the police found me, they seemed so relieved that I was at least alive, and not dead, that they just let me go,' said Adil, whose black-and-white hoodie read 'Dream maker'. For Adil, Aland and Shino, this has become somewhat of a daily routine – chased off a truck, occasionally taken into police custody and released, all before boarding a bus from Calais back to Dunkirk to try yet again with new directions in a phone call from the smuggler, usually in the late afternoon or early evening. On the morning when those two bodies washed up in Berck, Aland and Shino were detained after French authorities found them sandwiched between palettes – particularly uncomfortable for Aland, 27, as she is expecting their first child. 'I'm either in prison, or on the truck,' Adil said, aboard a bus going toward Dunkirk as a mix of teenaged students, pensioners and more migrants climbed aboard. Dozens of migrants, lugging bags big and small, could be spotted waiting at bus stops along the route. Adil is determined to get to the UK; over the past four years, he has tried three times to get to Europe, succeeding finally in January. He changed his name and obtained a new passport to enter Turkey from Iraq – all to circumvent an entry ban as authorities had deported him after a failed attempt to journey to Europe. This time, after arriving in Istanbul, he easily snuck overland thanks to a string of drivers who sped him from Turkey to Bulgaria, then onward to Germany. 'I got out of the car and walked around; I looked everywhere, to make sure that I really was in Germany,' Adil said. Only then did he call his brother back in Iraq, who handed $12,000 (£9,469) in cash to a people smuggler. Stowaways on lorries and via boats – often refugees from Sudan who risk life and limb to cross for free, as they cannot afford to pay smugglers – are also a challenge to authorities. Malik, a 24-year-old from Sudan, fled to Libya from where he snuck onto a ship without knowing where it was headed. He ended up in Italy. From there, he made his way to France and started figuring out how to jam himself onto a boat bound for the UK – all without paying a penny to a smuggler. Two months ago, he managed to follow a group of people all the way to the beach and even boarded the dinghy. But just as they tried to get the engine roaring, the French police pulled them back. Some Sudanese migrants negotiate directly with smugglers on the beach loading boats. These days, they are more likely to agree in order to prevent a fight, which could alert police and mean yet another stalled boat. Not all smugglers do, however, and instead shoot guns to scare people away and off the boat. Others have tried to jump onto lorries when drivers park up or slow down at roundabouts, aiming for the space between the driver's cabin and the cargo bed. This is an extremely hazardous option that has led to at least one known fatality – a 20-year-old Sudanese man – in recent weeks. In response, smugglers are beginning to offer lower rates for Sudanese migrants compared with the thousands of dollars or euros that others pay. Police operations go beyond the beaches to tent sites – encampments guarded by smugglers armed with guns that are periodically cleared by officers, and spring up again elsewhere. Both officers and smugglers have died in camp altercations over the years. 'Killing in the jungle is even easier than lighting a cigarette,' said Adil. Sometimes, he, Aland and Shino return to their tents in Grand-Synthe, hidden behind bare trees off a highway strip, to rest. Despite several failed attempts, all three remain determined to stay the course. 'I want to join the rest of my family in the UK,' said Aland, who wants to give birth and raise her child in Britain. Ms Lajili said: 'It's simple when you say it like that…they want to join their parents, sister or brother in the UK. We advocate for safe routes for people to be able to reach their destination without having to put themselves in danger and having to die.' Shino said: 'Even if it cost 20,000 euros for each of us, I would pay.' Additional reporting by Halan Akoiy Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
What a single day of migrant distress calls tells us about evolving smuggling tactics
At 16 minutes past midnight on Feb 9, the first distress call came through. Forty-five migrants were attempting to cross the Channel but encountered trouble and called the number given to them by a French non-profit. This alert was one of 20 that Utopia 56 would receive over the next 24 hours. Added together, they concerned 655 people trying to make the treacherous crossing. The actual figures, though, are likely higher. Some 60 migrants made it to the UK that day on two boats, according to Home Office data, while others may not have called for help. The following morning, the bodies of two men washed up on shore. The Telegraph has mapped the distress calls that day to show the growing stretch of coastline from which people smugglers and migrants are setting sail in order to evade detection from increased patrols, offering a snapshot of the challenge facing French and British authorities in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. They have also adopted increasingly dangerous tactics – making the task even greater. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, visited Bruno Retailleau, her hardline French counterpart, on Thursday to discuss what can be done. While she was there, Mr Retailleau announced that he was seeking a law change to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water. French law currently prohibits police from tackling a migrant boat once it has entered the water, leaving officers only able to launch a rescue operation. Smugglers are using increasingly drastic tactics to avoid being stopped. This includes sending densely packed boats from multiple locations, as reflected in the distress calls, moving far beyond Calais, the narrowest point of the Channel at about 20 miles wide. Departures now run as far north as Dunkirk near the border to Belgium – and sometimes even from Belgium – and as far south as the charming seaside town of Berck, across the Channel from Eastbourne in the UK. Some smugglers have also moved further inland, attempting to travel from the narrow canals of northern France that flow out into the Channel. Others continue to sneak migrants on lorries parked in Dunkirk, which then drive down to the port of Calais and load onto ferries bound for Dover. The fast-evolving tactics mean British and French authorities must contend with more territory, which is becoming near-impossible to police in its entirety: it is not feasible to completely seal off any route. Discoveries of new departure points and routes often occur once corpses wash up, as it was on Feb 10 when the bodies of two men were found on the sandy beaches of Berck. Last March, a seven-year-old girl died when a boat overturned in a canal in Gravelines, just next to Dunkirk. Feyrouz Lajili, a field coordinator in Calais for Doctors Without Borders, said: 'What we see is that more reinforcement of the border doesn't deter people from crossing, but what happens is that people take more and more risks; and more and more people die. 'There are more and more new methods to cross. Now boats are leaving even further south, where the distance can double or triple according to where you leave, which makes the crossings even more dangerous.' This is reflected in the numbers: 2024 was the deadliest year on record for Channel crossings with at least 80 deaths, including a four-month-old infant, according to the UN's migration agency. With deaths ticking up, some migrants believe the lorry-to-ferry option will be safer. Aland and Shino, a couple from Iraq hoping to find refuge in the UK, have attempted this route a few times, as directed by smugglers to whom they paid €10,000 (£8,266). Shino, 33, said: 'One time, when the driver discovered us, he said to me: 'Sorry, you didn't have luck this time; you'll have to try again.'' What they pay smugglers for is information – where to go, when to go – as well as support to break into the truck and lock the doors behind them. They can make as many attempts as they're willing to stomach, as long as they have money to cover expenses such as food. The couple will, in the end, pay smugglers the same amount regardless of whether it takes one, or multiple, attempts to arrive in the UK – an arrangement meant as a guarantee for both parties. Smugglers continue to improvise as French police have deployed more patrols and surveillance technology, bolstered by about £500 million in funding from the UK. Many roads that turn off toward the coastline have police vans parked on bends. Officers have resorted to puncturing or otherwise sabotaging the boats so they cannot inflate. Smugglers sometimes float the boat away from the shore with only a few people on board. They then rev the engine and pick up migrants swimming in the cold water to avoid being spotted by drones looking for large groups, in a method referred to as 'taxi boats'. Boarding the boat this way is a terrifying experience for many people, some of whom sustain injuries or die in the process. 'Deaths are happening closer to shore,' said Ms Lajili, whose organisation routinely treats migrants with cuts, bruises and broken limbs from these rushed departures. She added: 'People are dying at the moment when they are trying to leave, because there is a big moment of panic.' It is this tactic that the new French initiative is targeting. The rule change will allow police to use their own boats for the first time, and tackle migrants out of the vessels. With ramped-up border enforcement, smugglers have also begun overloading the boats with more migrants in hopes of getting a larger batch to the UK in one go, as they are typically paid only after migrants arrive. Authorities have found as many as 90 people crammed onto a single vessel designed to hold far less in weight, increasing the chance of capsizing at sea. This is reflected in government data. In 2024, almost 37,000 migrants arrived in the UK on about 690 boats – more than four times the number of people crossing the Channel in 2020, but on roughly the same number of vessels. Adil, another Iraqi Kurd whom Aland and Shino met in France, also previously tried to go by boat, but police shot tear gas and ruptured the vessel. The violence and danger pushed him toward the lorry route, which he has tried a few times, also guided by a smuggler. Adil spent his 28th birthday squeezed into a freezer truck full of apples. Police caught him seven hours later in Calais just before the lorry was due to load onto the ferry bound for Dover. 'When the police found me, they seemed so relieved that I was at least alive, and not dead, that they just let me go,' said Adil, whose black-and-white hoodie read 'Dream maker'. For Adil, Aland and Shino, this has become somewhat of a daily routine – chased off a truck, occasionally taken into police custody and released, all before boarding a bus from Calais back to Dunkirk to try yet again with new directions in a phone call from the smuggler, usually in the late afternoon or early evening. On the morning when those two bodies washed up in Berck, Aland and Shino were detained after French authorities found them sandwiched between palettes – particularly uncomfortable for Aland, 27, as she is expecting their first child. 'I'm either in prison, or on the truck,' Adil said, aboard a bus going toward Dunkirk as a mix of teenaged students, pensioners and more migrants climbed aboard. Dozens of migrants, lugging bags big and small, could be spotted waiting at bus stops along the route. Adil is determined to get to the UK; over the past four years, he has tried three times to get to Europe, succeeding finally in January. He changed his name and obtained a new passport to enter Turkey from Iraq – all to circumvent an entry ban as authorities had deported him after a failed attempt to journey to Europe. This time, after arriving in Istanbul, he easily snuck overland thanks to a string of drivers who sped him from Turkey to Bulgaria, then onward to Germany. 'I got out of the car and walked around; I looked everywhere, to make sure that I really was in Germany,' Adil said. Only then did he call his brother back in Iraq, who handed $12,000 (£9,469) in cash to a people smuggler. Sudanese refugees Stowaways on lorries and via boats – often refugees from Sudan who risk life and limb to cross for free, as they cannot afford to pay smugglers – are also a challenge to authorities. Malik, a 24-year-old from Sudan, fled to Libya from where he snuck onto a ship without knowing where it was headed. He ended up in Italy. From there, he made his way to France and started figuring out how to jam himself onto a boat bound for the UK – all without paying a penny to a smuggler. Two months ago, he managed to follow a group of people all the way to the beach and even boarded the dinghy. But just as they tried to get the engine roaring, the French police pulled them back. Some Sudanese migrants negotiate directly with smugglers on the beach loading boats. These days, they are more likely to agree in order to prevent a fight, which could alert police and mean yet another stalled boat. Not all smugglers do, however, and instead shoot guns to scare people away and off the boat. Others have tried to jump onto lorries when drivers park up or slow down at roundabouts, aiming for the space between the driver's cabin and the cargo bed. This is an extremely hazardous option that has led to at least one known fatality – a 20-year-old Sudanese man – in recent weeks. In response, smugglers are beginning to offer lower rates for Sudanese migrants compared with the thousands of dollars or euros that others pay. Police operations go beyond the beaches to tent sites – encampments guarded by smugglers armed with guns that are periodically cleared by officers, and spring up again elsewhere. Both officers and smugglers have died in camp altercations over the years. 'Killing in the jungle is even easier than lighting a cigarette,' said Adil. Sometimes, he, Aland and Shino return to their tents in Grand-Synthe, hidden behind bare trees off a highway strip, to rest. Despite several failed attempts, all three remain determined to stay the course. 'I want to join the rest of my family in the UK,' said Aland, who wants to give birth and raise her child in Britain. Ms Lajili said: 'It's simple when you say it like that…they want to join their parents, sister or brother in the UK. We advocate for safe routes for people to be able to reach their destination without having to put themselves in danger and having to die.' Shino said: 'Even if it cost 20,000 euros for each of us, I would pay.'
The Guardian
15-02-2025
- General
- The Guardian
One dies in attempted Channel crossing after small boat sinks off Calais coast
One person has died trying to cross the Channel in a small boat that sank off the coast of Calais, while 69 were rescued during what French authorities said was a very busy night for crossings. The small boat began to take in water before French navy ship Abeille Normandie rescued the 70 people on board. Only half of those on board had life jackets. The French navy's Dauphin helicopter was also involved in the rescue operation. Two people were carried unconscious on to the Abeille Normandie. One was resuscitated while the other was taken by helicopter to hospital, where they were later pronounced dead. The person is at least the fourth so far this year to die attempting to cross the Channel in a small boat. A Syrian man in his twenties is thought to have been crushed to death on 11 January in an overcrowded boat that began to collapse after setting off from Sangatte. On 10 February two bodies were found after attempting to swim out to a small boat. So far this year more than 1,500 people have crossed the Channel in small boats including three people who made their own boat and crossed the Channel on 10 February. The UK government has launched initiatives they say will 'smash' the business model of the smugglers who organise the Channel crossings. Last year 36,816 people crossed the Channel, down from the record high in 2022, when 45,755 crossed. Since small boat crossings began in 2018, more than 150,000 people have arrived in the UK by this route. A statement from the French maritime prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea said the Channel was particularly dangerous in the middle of winter for precarious and overloaded boats, as it was a busy shipping lane with difficult weather conditions. Utopia 56, a French organisation that supports migrants in northern France posted on X about Saturday's death, describing it as a 'harmful consequence' of government policies to stop small boats from crossing the Channel. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.'
