the times | Thursday November 25 2021 7
News
Macron seeks emergency
meeting of EU ministers
Adam Sage ParisPresident Macron called on the EU’s
border agency to step up their fight to
stop illegal migrants entering the bloc
as he sought to portray the Channel
crossings as a European problem.
He demanded an emergency meet-
ing of the EU ministers with responsi-
bility for migration, adding: “It is what
Europe carries most deeply — human-
ism, respect for everyone’s dignity —
which is grieving.”
French officials are trying to depict
the country as a staging post on routes
that take migrants from Asia, Africa
and elsewhere to the UK.
Gérald Darmanin, the interior minis-
ter, said they often spent only a few days
or weeks in France before a crossing.
The aim is to deflect British calls for
a cross-Channel agreement on migra-
tion, and to convince the UK to seek a
deal with the EU instead.
Macron was keen to shield himself
against claims he had failed to tackle
the people-smuggling gangs. He said
that since the start of the year, police
had dismantled 44 gangs and arrested
1,552 traffickers. He added: “If we don’tincrease our efforts, other tragedies will
occur. We must accelerate the dismant-
ling of networks together with Britain,
Belgium, Holland and Germany.”
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right
National Rally, accused Macron of
being soft on the gangs and of allowing
migrants to cross the Channel. She
added: “We must not use the migrants
as a weapon [against Britain].”
Le Pen suggested that Macron was
employing tactics similar to those of
President Lukashenko of Belarus by us-
ing migrants as a diplomatic tool. “That
must not happen,” she said.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, presidential
candidate of the far-left France Un-
bowed party, said: “Shame on those
who are responsible and first and fore-
most the traffickers.”
But he told Britain to open its doors to
migrants, saying: “France is neither
Britain’s border guard nor its jailer.”
Franck Dhersin, the deputy chair-
man of the Hauts-de-France regional
council in northern France, said: “I am
angry with the English because the
heads of the trafficking gangs are all in
England and that is where they make
their money.”News
Babies in flimsy
inflatables with
no food or water
Emma Yeomans Record year for arrivals
Data up to November 22, 2021Number of migrants crossing
the Channel in small boats1,
02,3,4,5,6,7,2020 2021
*Data for 2018 and 2019 is from the Home Office, data for 2020
and 2021 is from Migration Watch UK, based on media reportsSTEVE FINN FOR THE TIMES; GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERSMore than 600 migrants including
children and babies made the perilous
journey across the Channel in make-
shift boats to Dungeness yesterday.
One inflatable carrying 34 people
was so flimsy that when a rescuer grab-
bed a handle it came off in his hand.
“The glue wasn’t even dry,” one said of
the Rib they had towed to shore, motor
half-attached, adding that usually the
smugglers would line the bottom with
wood for stability. “I guess this time
they didn’t bother.”
It was one of eight boats rescued off
the coast of Kent by the RNLI. Only
one boat was seen landing on the beach
at Dungeness without assistance.
Those on board kissed the ground.
The asylum seekers were a mix of
Iraqi Kurds and Afghans. Among them
was an Afghan soldier who had worked
with British forces. His family had
decided to risk their lives to cross the
Channel after they “waited so long for
help” from Britain.
Exhausted women and children were
left waiting on the beach for hours with-
out food or water after Border Force
and the police became overwhelmed
with the numbers of people arriving.
Outside Dungeness lifeboat station,
a girl of about five stood wrapped in a
blanket, her teeth chattering. The
temperature was 5C.
One migrant, 40, who gave his name
as Khan, made the crossing with his
brother Sanowbar and two teenage
sons, Shahpesaar and Shahpir-Elam,
aged 13 and 15. They left Afghanistan in
August with Sanowbar, who had been a
special forces officer in the Afghan
army and had trained and worked with
British and US soldiers.
“We left because of the Taliban,” he
said. “We had a house, we had a life,
everything. But the problems started
with the Taliban.”
He carried the family’s documents in
a wet folder, wrapped in plastic bags.
They included an ID card showing his
brother’s participation in US-Afghan
military exercises.
“Because he worked with the British,
this is problems with the Taliban. This is
why I come with my children. We have
all the documents, but we waited so
long for help,” he added.
One man had not eaten in three
days. A woman who was carrying
her infant daughter asked
reporters for water. Ahmad,
28, from Palestine, said he
had paid £2,000 for a
place on a boat that ran
out of fuel and drifted to
shore. He spent more than
ten hours on the trip. “We
are like 50 people,” he said.
“They must make around
£100,000.”
Before the first boat
was brought ashore at
about 9.30am, police
and Border Force
officers assembled
outside the grey boat
shed. A coach marked
Border and Immigration
Service was parked ready
to take the migrants to a
processing centre.
After the lifeboat reached
the beach they were leddown a ladder on to the shingle and up
the banks to the waiting officers. At
about 1.30pm another group was
brought to shore, again including
several young children. A Border Force
officer carried a baby up the shingle.
The children had been given lollipops
on the lifeboat, and those who were old
enough stumbled up the beach with the
sweets in their mouths.
“It’s horrendous,” one officer said.
“It’s just horrendous today.”
Only a few minutes later, another
boat arrived. The lifeboat had been tail-
ing it offshore, guiding it as it was stable.
But about 300m from the shore people
began crying for help and the boat
twisted and drifted. At lunchtime, sea
fishermen sitting by their lines watched
as a dinghy reached the shore metres
from them. A man leapt out and kissed
the ground. Others punched the air as
they staggered up the shingle.
By 2.30pm, more than 100 people had
arrived on the tip of the peninsula,
under the lighthouse and in the shadow
of Dungeness B nuclear power station.
Border Force coaches had not yet
arrived and there was nowhere to take
people, an officer said. Asked if water or
food were needed, the officer said it was
a humanitarian issue and pointed to a
café where water was available. Some
locals brought food and water, but some
drivers shouted: “Send them back.”
The group was still waiting nearly 90
minutes later, many of them still wet.
Police and Border Force officers tried to
sort them into families. Some of
those with children waited in the
lifeboat station.
Ahmed had worked in Pales-
tine as a translator for NGOs.
He left for Jordan but was
refused paperwork from the
Israeli army to return to
his home country, so he
headed for Europe, cross-
ing the Mediterranean to
Italy. “This was harder,”
he said, pointing to the
water. “It is colder, and
there were more waves.
You couldn’t leave from
Calais but from Boulo-
gne it was longer.”
He spent a night
in woods near
Boulogne, and left
at 2am under orders
from smugglers. There
had been no water or food
on the crossing.
“We tried to call the
police,” he said. “We called
six times but nobody came.
On the French side, they
were with us. They told me
the UK had more humanity.
“So I came here, I hoped I
would be helped.”fA child sucks on a sweet
given to him by a rescuer
after landing at DungenessDeaths of the desperate
2000 The bodies of 58 suffocated
Chinese migrants were found in a
lorry in Dover, with two survivors.2001 Nine people were found dead
in a lorry in Waterford in Ireland.2015 The corpses of 71 Afghans,
Syrians and Iraqis were found in a
lorry on an Austrian motorway.2015 A picture of three-year-old
Alan Kurdi, a Syrian Kurd, lying dead
on a Turkish beach shocked the
world after a summer of crossings in
the Mediterranean.2015 Carlito Vale, a Mozambican, fell
to his death in London after hiding
in a plane’s landing gear.2019 Thirty-nine Vietnamese were
found suffocated in the back of a
lorry in Essex.2019 An estimated 150 people died
off Libya attempting to cross the
Mediterranean in two unseaworthy
vessels.2020 An Iranian Kurdish couple and
their three small children drowned
in the English Channel.