At least 12 people, including children and a pregnant woman, have died after their overcrowded inflatable boat began taking on water in the English Channel earlier this week. The issue of people crossing the Channel in small boats is complex and multifaceted, involving human, moral, practical, political, and diplomatic concerns. It is a crisis that governments of different political stripes have been unable to fully address, and there appears to be a disturbing trend towards increasingly perilous attempts at crossing the Channel.
One explanation for this trend is the result of attempts to disrupt the organised criminal networks at the heart of these crossings. The government and the National Crime Agency have been focused on “upstream solutions”, which aim to dismantle the business model of smugglers and disrupt the supply chains they rely on for boats and engines. However, reducing the availability of boats and engines has resulted in even poorer quality vessels being used to attempt the crossing, carrying more people and often with inadequate power and safety measures.
The diplomatic relationship between the UK and France is also a major factor. Recently, some in London have expressed concerns that they are dealing with a dysfunctional administration in Paris, while the French government has suggested a migration treaty between the UK and the EU and blamed Brexit for exacerbating problems. Both suggestions appear unlikely to come to fruition.
The UK’s new home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has vowed to dismantle the smuggler gangs responsible for these dangerous crossings, while her predecessor, James Cleverly, has called for a deterrent to be put in place. However, solving this issue is likely to prove incredibly difficult and may ultimately come to define the government’s handling of this issue for years to come. Until a solution is found, there is a real risk of even more tragic incidents occurring in the waters between France and England
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