They were very numerous to try their luck on Saturday. Nearly 1,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to get to the United Kingdom aboard small makeshift boats, the British Ministry of Defense said on Sunday. This is not a record, since 1,300 had made it in a single day by the end of August. According to official figures, 960 people made the perilous crossing aboard 20 boats, bringing the total number of crossings since the beginning of the year to more than 26,000.
Over the weekend, nearly 300 other migrants rescued at sea were brought back to the French coast, according to the maritime prefecture of the English Channel and the North Sea (Premar). La Premar specifies in its press release that 109 people were rescued on Sunday off the coast of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, following “nearly 190” rescues on Saturday. On Friday, 221 people had reached the UK following crossing the English Channel in makeshift boats in one of the busiest straits in the world. Forty other castaways had been rescued by the French authorities.
The crossing record should be largely beaten
The number of these crossings is set to beat the record for 2021, when 28,500 people arrived on British soil. Such attempts have multiplied since 2018 in the face of the increasing lockdown of the French port of Calais and of the Channel Tunnel.
A recent British parliamentary report estimated that the total might reach 60,000 this year, despite repeated promises from the British Conservative government, which has made the subject a priority since Brexit.
London has concluded a very controversial agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers arriving by such boats on British soil to this East African country. Although none of these expulsions has yet taken place – a first flight scheduled for June was canceled following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) – the candidates for the succession of Boris Johnson, Both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have promised to continue this policy.
