CHANNEL CROSSINGS: NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE
Landed in Dover, but some aren’t so lucky.Yep, it was me. I was the one who discovered an illegal migrant hiding on the car deck at five am whilst just 40 minutes from Dover. It’s not such a rare occurrence as expected, but contrary to standing orders which states we should immediately call a security officer – security? – that’s a joke for the company long quit with security years ago on cost grounds) – I took the Afghani bloke up to reception.
He was starved, filthy and ragged, seemingly travelling underneath a series of trucks through Iran, Turkey and thence across Europe.We sat him in a chair, gave him water and a cup of hot tea to await docking and the Dover Port Police. Apart from thinking about the desperation of people to make such a journey, I reflected on a Kent newspaper letter I’d recently read from one signed ‘Disgusted’ of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
The writer wondered why emergency services such as the RNLI are actively rescuing people and landing them in the UK thereby ‘contributing’ to the ‘migrant crisis.’ Well, there’s little to answer for that except to say that the UK is a signatory to United Nations legislation as well as having a moral right to rescue people in peril on the ocean.
Still, I figured that, crikey! – this ‘disgusted’ of RTW wouldn’t be impressed with me, even though there’s a difference between escorting a stowaway from a car deck as opposed to pulling half-drowned migrants from a leaking dinghy.
On the ferry we would see attempted crossings often; mostly at night from Bray dunes near Dunkirk, the lights of a French police boat would follow their dinghy which, as an aside, seemed to confirm that the French government is pleased their migrant problem would soon be the UK’s problem instead.
The police boat soon turned back to France and in the busy shipping lanes migrant dinghies were hardly seen at all amidst ferries and tankers – some of the latter being hundreds of feet long and the height of a block of flats.
We often thought of the migrants’ plight in the darkness, having to periodically clear the propellor and cooling water intakes of seaweed and floating plastic such as fast-food wrappers and wet-wipes – the detritus of prosperous coastal towns nearby.Of children in the boats, freezing and covered in vomit, who had little understanding of the situation.
The sea temperature range of the Channel is between 5 and 15 degrees Celsius but all that means is that the higher figure perhaps gives a few more minutes before death through exposure sets in . And as every merchant seafarer knows, the tidal races and currents are absolutely treacherous, whilst with each passing ship migrants would bale out gallons of sea water from the floor. Mobile phones would be carried in order to call emergency services on the English side, but it goes without saying these would need to be kept absolutely dry.
It’s doubtful that many passengers would have much sea experience and certainly not on this, the busiest shipping route in the world. Maybe the smuggling gangs told them it would be a piece of cake, similar to a crossing of Baghdad’s Euphrates river, for example.But maybe some are aware of the danger of the Channel and choose to ignore it.
For no matter which category of migrant in those dinghies: stateless, fleeing from persecution or being trafficked there are plenty who contend that the UK is the last hope, I.e. they’ve nothing left to lose.Others, nevertheless, are looking for a better way of life and these rightly so don’t always get leave to stay as a recent BBC report from an Albanian economic migrant quotes:
‘I paid €3.5k to a Kurdish smuggling gang. The sea was terrifying and when we were rescued in Dover, I was sent to a processing centre, interviewed and told that because I was Albanian, I would be returned home. I wish I’d never tried to enter the UK.’ (Albania is deemed a ‘safe’ country by the UN).(1)
However, last December saw one of the Channel’s worst maritime tragedies in years as an inflatable capsized off Dunkirk drowning at least 27 as well as others unaccounted for.Particularly shameful was the falling-out between the UK and French governments as each predictably blamed the other for this loss of life.
Washed-up belongings from an overturned dinghy off Bray dunes, Dunkirk in December 2021 – victims included a pregnant woman and three adolescents.It’s easy to see that neither government wants to resolve the problem – indeed Downing Street seems unsure of the exact number of illegals actually living and working across the UK according to the NGO Migrationwatch. (2)
The French use the slightly derogatory noun demandeur de a’sile for their asylum seekers. But in Britain the tabloids regularly use water metaphors for the Channel crossings debate so although neither representations are helpful it is interesting how the UK is ‘swamped’ by a ‘flood’ or ‘tidal wave’ of migrants.Using this kind of word-play is easy to get the general public onto the anti-immigration lobby.
But back to sea rescues and whilst ferries do not routinely stop for tiny craft in distress they do radio ahead immediately.Which is where the RNLI, Coastguard and others come in. As mentioned their main purpose is to save life but contrary to this are an abundance of well-documented stories suggesting some of the general public are dissatisfied with this.
Some report of phone calls to RNLI stations telling the staff they ‘should be ashamed of themselves’ [for rescuing foreigners] whilst capsized migrants disembarking on a Kent beach were promptly told to ‘fuck off back home’ by a picnicking family. A ‘drunken yob’ according to a local person, ‘threw a beer can at a soaking wet child’ – let’s just hope this last report was an exaggeration.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of signs the UK population is getting ‘migrant fatigue.’ In the face of long NHS waiting lists, shortage of housing and increased taxation, people understandably wonder why others go to the head of the queue, so to speak.
But all the same the UK has a long tradition of an open door to migrants in distress, whether it be the 17th century Huguenots; the Jewish children in the 1930’s or, more recently, Ugandan Asians, Vietnamese boat people and Ukrainian women and children.
And although the hardships and practicalities of these boat crossings earn a grudging respect from merchant seafarers and others, let’s give the last word to a local refugee help organisation member instead.
For in a Sky News interview, Ms Katie Sweetingham of Dungeness quotes:
‘Yes, we are friendly and welcoming but no-one leaves home to make a dangerous Channel crossing because someone is smiling and offering them dry clothes when they get to the beach.*(3)
Perhaps ‘Disgusted’ of Royal Tunbridge Wells needs to get out more, especially in his own back yard on any Kent beach – that would be a good start.
* Ms Sweetingham was referring to the practice of some local people in Kent to offer migrants food, water and dry clothes when they arrive on the beach.
References:
1) bbc.co.uk (21.11.2022) Channel Kurdish Smuggling Gang – accessed 22/11/2022
2)migrationwatch news ((15/2/2020) Quick facts – accessed 22/11/2022
3) Newssky.com (13/10/2022) Migrant Crisis, – accessed 22/11/2022