The post Record 230 migrants cross English Channel in single small boat, French officials say first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Three years ago, I was working in Moria camp, the largest and possibly most notorious refugee camp in Europe on the Greek island of Lesvos. A former army barracks built to house just under 3,000 people, Moria camp was chronically overcrowded and, at its peak in 2020, had a population of over 20,000 people, one-third of whom were children.

The squalid conditions these migrants were forced to live in were harrowing: hygiene facilities so scarce that hundreds shared one shower, there were no toilets in some parts of the camps, families had to sleep in summer tents in the freezing winter, and rubbish piled high around them.

I met young children showing signs of severe distress and some were self-harming. Children were bitten by scorpions, snakes, and rats. Access to healthcare inside the camp was virtually non-existent and food shortages were the norm. Violence was an everyday reality and deprivation was everywhere. It was a dystopian hell.

At the time, I was disgusted by the anti-refugee rhetoric spreading through Europe. How could people not see that these were vulnerable human beings who had a right to protection?

“In the name of ‘fixing the broken asylum system’ the British government is planning to bring in some of the most punitive, cruel and dangerous migration policies in the world”
Now in 2022, I hear the same populist anti-refugee rhetoric being wielded against people trying to reach the UK on boats in the English Channel – this time in the form of the British government’s Nationality and Borders Bill.

If passed, the bill will criminalise men, women and children trying to reach sanctuary in the UK with potentially fatal consequences. It will violate the Refugee Convention and other international legal obligations and undermine the UK’s international standing. We must try and stop it.

Terrifying possibilities

In the name of “fixing the broken asylum system,” the British government is planning to bring in some of the most punitive, cruel and dangerous migration policies in the world. The Home Office claims the bill will help to save lives, but we know that more lives will be lost as a result of their dangerous and illogical measures.

Plans to expand the use of large-scale asylum accommodation, replicating the Greek island approach, terrify me. These measures confine people to prison-like facilities, severely impacting their access to vital services and damaging their mental and physical health. I know – I have seen it happen.

I am appalled that the government considers Napier Barracks, a former military site where hundreds of newly arrived asylum seekers in the UK have been sent, a “prototype” for larger-scale facilities. Conditions in Napier have been decried by multiple independent investigators, the High Court, NGOs and, most importantly, the inhabitants themselves.

MSF UK@MSF_uk
The #AntiRefugeeBill, or Nationality and Borders Bill, returns to Parliament today.

Here’s a reminder of the dangers of this inhumane legislation and how you can become a part of the growing movement against it.

MSF UK@MSF_uk

We’re at a critical point where the UK Gov could erode the fundamental right of claiming asylum.

Under the Gov’s proposed Borders Bill, unaccompanied children and torture survivors can be criminalised and denied vital protections.

Let’s not allow this!
https://msf.me/3n9jynx

Proposals for offshore detention facilities are meanwhile extremely alarming. This would allow asylum seekers to be removed to another country and detained there indefinitely while their claims are processed.

My colleagues who worked on Nauru Island, where the Australian government implemented a similar policy, witnessed some of the worst mental health suffering recorded in MSF’s 50 years of existence. Almost one-third of our 208 patients attempted suicide. Children as young as nine years old tried to kill themselves.

If these measures were not bad enough, the government is also attempting to enable pushbacks of migrant boats in the Channel. This is not only dangerous but a flagrant violation of international law. MSF’s search and rescue teams in the Mediterranean Sea have seen first-hand the deadly consequences of attempts to push back small boats and refusal to rescue those onboard.

Over 1,500 people drowned in the Central Mediterranean in 2021 because of UK and EU-backed policies that undermine effective search and rescue. If the UK adopts this approach in the English Channel, it is inevitable that more people will die.

Counterproductive measures

Not only is the Nationality and Borders Bill cruel, but it will also be ineffective and counterproductive. Harsher detention policies and pushbacks will not stop people seeking safety, it will only make their journeys more dangerous. Lives will be lost in a pointless battle where the casualties will be vulnerable and persecuted people.

Perversely, while the British government repeats talking points about the need for people to arrive through “legal routes,” it has made it virtually impossible for people to reach the UK through official channels.

The Dubs Scheme, focused on relocating unaccompanied child refugees from within Europe, and family reunification pathways have been shut down. The only remaining option is the painfully slow UNHCR resettlement scheme, which resettles fewer than 1% of the world’s refugees every year.

“The British government claims it wants to stamp out people smuggling operations that prey on vulnerable people, but this bill actually risks pushing more people into the hands of these dangerous gangs”

The UK government has also failed to establish a functioning scheme to enable individuals in immediate danger to legally enter the UK. Six months after the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme was announced, the programme has only just formally opened and the first to be “resettled” include those already evacuated to the UK. Those still in Afghanistan are forced to wait while the humanitarian situation further deteriorates.

As MSF is one of the few international organizations left providing medical care, my colleagues in Afghanistan see the crisis unfolding daily. People cannot simply wait and hope their time for resettlement will come soon. Yet if they attempt to reach the UK via irregular routes, they will face criminalisation and indefinite detention under measures set out in the Nationality and Borders Bill.

The British government claims it wants to stamp out people smuggling operations that prey on vulnerable people, but this bill actually risks pushing more people into the hands of these dangerous gangs.

The Home Office’s own Equality Impact Assessment of the Nationality and Borders Bill found “there is a risk that increased security and deterrence could encourage these cohorts to attempt riskier means of entering the UK.”

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are not the faceless mass that the government attempts to portray them as, but real people who want to be safe. Many have already endured torture, sexual violence, and imprisonment, not to mention the perilous journey to the UK, which nobody undertakes lightly.

The Nationality and Borders Bill is a deliberate and racist attempt by the UK government to shirk its obligations to these vulnerable people. It is inhumane, punitive, and doomed to fail.

Demonizing and criminalizing people who arrive on boats will not fix the broken asylum system – it will only cause further suffering to the people who need our solidarity and care the most.

Sophie McCann is advocacy officer at MSF UK and former advocacy manager for MSF’s operations in Greece.

Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@alaraby.co.uk

Opinions expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The New Arab and its editorial board or staff.

Source: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/nationality-borders-bill-will-only-cause-more-suffering

The post The Nationality and Borders Bill will only cause more suffering and death first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The United Kingdom saw a record number of migrants arrive via the English Channel last year, data shows.

A total of 28,395 migrants landed on the southeast coast of England last year, more than three times the number reported for 2020.

The busiest month for Channel crossings was November, when 6,869 migrants reportedly reached Britain, a month which also saw the record for the most migrants coming in a single day, as 1,185 landed on Nov. 11. The four-figure daily record marked the fifth new record for daily crossings in less than two months as migrants flooded into Britain.

The vast majority were identified upon crossing into U.K. territorial waters and escorted to shore for processing by U.K. border officials, however there were several instances last year when migrant boats arrived undetected on English beaches, and police were called to contain runaways.

Nigel Farage@Nigel_Farage
Illegal migrants on the run after a beach landing in Kent. The government has no intention of stopping this problem, they just tell more lies.

The situation in the Channel has escalated the already tense relations between the United Kingdom and France, with both countries accusing the other of taking insufficient action against smuggling gangs.

Relations soured between the governments of the two nations after U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel threatened to withhold substantial payments to France intended to help stem the flow of migrants if French authorities failed to “get their act together” in stopping the crossings.

The situation worsened on Nov. 24 following the tragic death of 31 migrants who drowned off the coast of northern France and the subsequent political fallout, which saw French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin disinvite his British counterpart from an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss how to address the crisis.

A total of 66 migrants reached Britain on Tuesday to become the first arrivals of 2022.

Source: https://rmx.news/article/english-channel-illegal-migrant-crossings-tripled-last-year-to-record-levels/

The post English Channel illegal migrant crossings tripled last year to record levels first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Thousands of people have crossed over into Britain in recent months but the migrants have been met with anti-immigration views.

Many refugees who have left for Britain seek economic opportunity or because of family ties. French authorities say another big draw is lax British rules toward migrants without residency papers.

Only migrants with more money can pay for boat passage to Britain; others have decided to take a leap of faith and jump onto commercial trucks that pass each week between Britain and France.

Police have heavily surveilled the English Channel by using technology to scan trucks for body heat and moving shadows.

Last year, more than 18,000 refugees were found in trucks, according to the Associated Press.

In an effort to deter migrants, truck drivers check to see that no one enters their rigs, or stop to tell would-be stowaways that they’re not going to Britain and there’s no point in climbing aboard. Police in patrol cars come by often, too, their sirens blaring.

If migrants do make it aboard a rig, they pay close attention to the truck’s route.

Only one sequence of left and right turns will lead them to the promised land across the Channel. If the combination is the wrong one, they get off and start over again.

And even if the vehicle is going in the right direction, more challenges and danger await the stowaways. If discovered, they are forced out of the vehicles by police.

Refugee advocacy groups and human rights observers report receiving calls for help from migrants in refrigerated trucks who say they are suffocating or about to die from hypothermia. Some say they have been roughed up by police when caught.

Some suffer broken bones or worse from trying to jump onto moving trucks. In late September, 20-year-old Yasser Abdallah was crushed to death by a truck.

Abdallah, too, had fled Sudan. He dreamed of being a taxi driver in Britain. The Calais migrant community grieved for him, and a week later, more than 300 came out to march in his memory.

In a written appeal to truck drivers, the marchers asked: “When you notice a refugee in the truck, you shake the truck and brake again and again until we let go. Why can’t we continue our travel?”

The truck jumpers have kept on trying.

At night, they sleep in the forest around Calais, in a tent if they’re lucky, but usually under trees. Police raid the encampments every morning, arresting them, tear-gassing them and confiscating their belongings, according to human rights observers.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/over-11000-migrants-found-hiding-trucks-this-year-they-cross-uk-france-1640464

The post Over 11,000 Migrants Found Hiding in Trucks This Year As They Cross Into UK From France first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

UN officials estimate that as many as 1,600 people have died or are missing in the Mediterranean Sea this year alone.

In contrast, just 35 migrants have died or remain missing in the Channel since the start of 2021.

This year, the busiest and deadliest migrant route to Europe is the central Mediterranean, where people travel in crowded boats from northern Africa.

The route has become the main gateway to Europe for migrants trying to enter the continent with the help of human smugglers.

On Thursday, Italy’s coastguard reported that they had rescued nearly 300 migrants off the coast of Lampedusa.

The authorities said the overcrowded boat had run into problems in difficult sea conditions, and some people had already fallen in the water. Eight children were among the 296 people rescued, the coastguard said.

The death toll in the Mediterranean this year is higher than 2020 but by no means unique.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 23,000 people have perished since 2014 while trying to reach Europe from northern Africa, including more than 5,000 people in 2016 alone.

In the same seven-year period, about 166 people have died in the English Channel.

Just last week, 85 people died in two separate incidents while trying to reach Italy from Libya, said the IOM spokesman in Italy, Flavio di Giacomo.

“I think the media attention of what happened between UK and France is also because this is new,” di Giacomo said.

“Europe is not used to [this] inside the continent, usually, it’s on the external borders,” he added.

According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, around 60,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea this year.

Meanwhile, an estimated 1,200 have died or disappeared on the journey, partly based on information from survivors of shipwrecks.

Migrant traffic has also increased on the even more dangerous Atlantic Ocean route to Spain’s Canary Islands.

IOM has registered 900 deaths on the Canaries route this year, di Giacomo said, but the true number could be double “and no one is paying a lot of attention.”

More than 400 people were rescued just this week while trying to reach the island group.

Human rights groups often criticize European governments for not doing more to rescue migrants trying to reach the continent on unseaworthy vessels.

In recent years, Europe has placed more emphasis on training and equipping the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrant boats before they can reach European waters.

But critics say Europe is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in Libyan detention centres for migrants.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/25/migrant-deaths-in-european-waters-not-new-over-1-600-have-died-this-year-iom

The post Migrant deaths in European waters not new, over 1,600 have died this year – IOM first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A record number of migrants have attempted to cross the English Channel today, according to witnesses.

It’s thought at least 1,000 men, women and children were spotted making the journey from France to the UK.

The Home Office has put the figure at lower than that but cannot yet say whether the record was broken.

The previous high of 828 migrants was reached 21 August.

It is understood the number may be down to the fine weather after weeks of unsettled conditions.

A group of migrants are brought ashore from the local lifeboat at Dungeness in Kent on Monday

Lifeboat teams have been bringing groups of migrants ashore, including a baby and several young children, following a day which saw the first people escorted to safety from the Channel to Dover in more than a fortnight.

Eyewitnesses have described authorities including Border Force and the RNLI as appearing to be very busy as a steady stream of crossings was thought to be under way on calm waters and under warm, sunny skies.

French authorities were also on alert for more migrant crossings.

Local Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) teams based in Kent picked up a small boat carrying a large group of migrants at Dungeness on Monday morning.

The group were brought ashore on Monday

The post Migrant crisis: Record number tried to cross Channel to UK today, say witnesses first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Almost 600 migrant Channel crossings at weekend first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post More migrants cross English Channel in small boats first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The UK government is considering plans to move arriving asylum seekers offshore to small islands or disused ferries moored of the British coast while their claims are processed, officials have said.

The proposals are among several being debated by ministers who want to discourage migrants from attempting to cross into the country from France.

More than 5,000 people successfully crossed the English Channel in small boats in the first eight months of this year, double the number that made the journey in the whole of 2019.

Many are taken by people smugglers who can charge thousands of euros per person for the trip.

European authorities announced this week that 12 people were arrested as part of a four-nation police operation to dismantle one criminal network of smugglers.

But British Home Secretary Priti Patel is understood to favour offshore processing, a system controversially used in Australia, to fulfil her promise to deter arriving economic migrants by making the sea route “unviable” for illegal crossings.

One idea — to process the migrants on decommissioned oil rigs in the North Sea — was deemed a “no go”, The Times reported on Thursday.

But plans including using dozens of cabins on board old cruise ships or building a processing centre on a small Scottish island are still being discussed, it added.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed to UK media that plans were being developed so that the UK “can keep providing protection to those who need it while preventing abuse of the system and criminality, which, as we have seen with the rise in gang-facilitated Channel crossings, is a problem.

“As part of that work, we have been looking at what a whole host of other countries do to inform a plan for the UK.”

Other possible locations for potential offshore centres including the remote Atlantic Ocean of Ascension Island are no longer being considered as sites after officials said they would be expensive and logistically complicated.

The post UK ponders using retired cruise ships to process asylum seekers offshore first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

During 2019 nearly 1,900 people tried to make the dangerous journey across the English Channel in small craft. The majority of them were from Iran.

Steve Reynolds, from the crime agency, said: “They may think if they make a large number of departures on a particular day at least some of them are more likely to get through.”

One charity which works with refugees said the government should consider letting migrants make asylum claims from France, as a way of preventing the crossings.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-kent-51152601/english-channel-migrants-boats-using-surge-tactics

The post Migrants heading to the UK ‘in surges’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.