LONDON — The number of people crossing the
Channel to the
UK from northern France in small boats has hit a new high, the
government in London said on Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Some 1,295 migrants were detected on Monday, beating
the previous single-day record of 1,185 on November 11, 2021, the Ministry of
Defense said.
The issue has caused a major political headache for
the UK government, which promised tighter border controls after leaving the
European Union.
Tensions have
risen between London and Paris, with the UK government accusing France of not
doing enough to stop the crossings.
So far this year there have been some 22,670
crossings. At the same point in 2021, nearly 12,500 had been intercepted making
the journey.
Last year, the UK authorities brought ashore a total
of 28,526 people as they tried to cross the busy shipping lane.
Groups helping migrants in the French Channel port
of Calais said favorable weather conditions were likely behind the record
numbers crossing on Monday.
Juliette Delaplace, from the charity Catholic Aid,
said the increase was not surprising, and some 1,500 people were currently in
local camps.
“There’s always a seasonal rise because it’s very
hard to survive on the streets of Calais in winter,” she told AFP.
Deportation
But Nikolai Posner, from the
Utopia 56 organization, said a hardening of political attitudes towards
migrants was to blame.
“Not everyone wants to go to
England. That choice is
a result of the unwelcoming policies and violence in France and Europe,” he added.
Greece has similarly accused neighboring Turkey of
not doing enough to stop people smugglers from sending migrants across the
Mediterranean Sea.
But Athens has also been accused of illegally
turning back migrants.
To try to address the issue, the UK has tightened
immigration laws to target people-smuggling gangs behind the crossings.
Rights groups have said the legislation also runs
the risk of criminalizing migrants seeking asylum from violence and persecution
in their homelands.
But most controversial is a partnership deal with
Rwanda signed earlier this year to send some migrants to the African country
for resettlement.
Deportation flights though have been stymied by a
series of legal challenges in the UK courts and at the European Court of Human
Rights.
The first flight in June was due to see some 130
asylum seekers sent to the Rwandan capital Kigali, but the numbers were
whittled down to zero because of court action.
Groups representing asylum seekers are due to
challenge the legality of the policy in court from next month.
‘Whatever it takes’
The UK government has
defended the policy as necessary because the costs involved in processing
asylum claims and housing migrants are too high.
It is also looking at changing human rights
legislation to make it easier to deport asylum seekers deemed to have entered
the UK illegally.
Both Liz Truss and
Rishi Sunak, who are vying to
succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister following his resignation, have backed
the Rwanda scheme.
With predictions some 60,000 people could cross this
year, Truss said she would extend the plan.
Sunak said he would do “whatever it takes” to make
it work.
But British MPs have questioned the deterrent effect
of the deportation plan, saying there was “no clear evidence” it would stop
crossings.
Since Home Secretary
Priti Patel signed the deal
with Rwanda four months ago, more than 17,400 people have crossed the Channel
in small boats.
Lawmakers instead called for closer cooperation with
the UK’s European neighbors, including intelligence sharing, to tackle criminal
gangs.
In France, Utopia 56’s Posner echoed calls from
Amnesty International and others for better coordination between the two
countries and the introduction of safe routes for migrants.
The UK parliament’s Home Affairs committee said a
total of 48,450 applications for asylum were made in 2021 — similar to every
year since 2014.
The lawmakers blamed the backlog of more than
125,000 cases on “antiquated IT systems, high staff turnover and too few
staff”.
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