On Wednesday, more than 700 migrants arrived on British shores aboard small boats after crossing the English Channel. This is a record for this year 2024, when London has made it a priority to put an end to these crossings.
According to figures from the Interior Ministry, published this Thursday, 711 migrants spread across 14 boats crossed the Pas-de-Calais Strait which separates Great Britain from Western Europe on Wednesday. Successful crossings which do not take into account the attempt of 66 migrants rescued the same day off the coast of Dieppe when their boat was in difficulty. They were brought back to Dieppe, according to French authorities. The previous record for 2024, on April 14, saw 534 people make the perilous crossing.
A “dissuasive” law that does not deter
A few months before the legislative elections, the British Conservative government has made it a priority to put an end to these Channel crossings by migrants. A controversial law, which aims to be “dissuasive”, adopted on April 23, aims to be able to expel thousands of them to Rwanda from July. Their asylum application would be considered in Rwanda, with no possibility of them returning to the UK, whatever the outcome.
Channel crossings have broken a historic record for the first four months of 2024, with the arrival of more than 8,000 migrants on the English coast, the majority from Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.