Six children and a pregnant woman were among 12 people who died Tuesday after a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the coast in the English Channel, according to the BBC.
Boulogne mayor Frederic Cuvillier claimed the developing migration crisis had changed and traumatised France’s northern coast.
It’s so upsetting. These people flee death and end up dying here. Mothers, children… convinced they will find a better life across the Channel.
In the UK, authorities have been quick to focus on and condemn smuggling gangs. Every incident, every death is seen as the result of cynical criminal activity. The smugglers again crammed too many of their paying customers into boats that looked increasingly flimsy and had hardly enough life jackets.
French police now have more men, vehicles, night-vision devices, and specialised drones that can spot groups of migrants hiding in the dunes. However, police know that as their operations expand, smuggling gangs react by finding new ways to cross the border, often putting the migrants themselves at even greater risk as a result.
Moreover, smugglers have increasingly resorted to violence. On beaches, they have thrown stones at police and waved knives. The smugglers’ goal is to gain a few precious seconds to launch their boats and passengers, after which the police, worried that they may be accused of putting people at even greater risk, rarely intervene.
Many French people deeply resent the way their own lives and communities have been changed by a crisis they see as Britain’s doing.
