Two years after at least 27 people died whilst attempting to cross the Channel by small boat to seek safety in the UK, 102 activists, organisations, and networks from across Europe, Africa, and North America have signed a statement demanding a “an urgent and radical change in the policies” at the shared Belgium-France-UK border and calling for “the right to life” of people on the move to be respected.
The statement, signed by organisations including the Welsh Refugee Council, JCWI, Doctors of the World France, Migreurop, and CNCD 11.11.11, calls for the “values and principles of welcome and free movement” to replace “the racist logic of deadly border violence.”
Activists and organisations will be gathering in Folkestone, Hastings, Dunkirk and Paris this evening to remember those who died on 24 November 2021 and all those who have died at the border, before and after this date, and to demand justice for them and those currently at the border.
Join us at 6pm on the steps by Goat Ledge, St Leonards on Sea, as we stand in solidarity with the victims of this disaster and everyone who has suffered from these inhumane border policies.
Full Statement:
Two years after the shipwreck of 24 November 2021, as injustice and deaths at the border continue, we stand together to call for a world free from border violence.
On 24 November 2021, at least 33 people in a dinghy tried to reach the United Kingdom from the coast of Dunkirk. The 33 people came mainly from Iraqi Kurdistan, but also from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, Somalia, and Vietnam.
Three hours into the Channel crossing, the boat found itself in distress. At 1:48 am, passengers managed to make contact with the Gris-Nez Regional Monitoring and Rescue Centre (“CROSS”), which coordinates rescue operations on the French side of the border. Although the boat was located in French territorial waters, the CROSS refused to send help.
Despite repeated calls from various people on board, between 1:48am and 4:34am, neither British rescue services, nor French rescue services launched any operation to rescue them. Worse still, at 4.16am, the CROSS even went so far as to dissuade a tanker from intervening to rescue the people who were drowning. It was only 12 hours later that the inflatable boat was found by a fishing boat. At least 27 people died that night in the icy waters of the English Channel.
A few days after the shipwreck, two survivors testified about how the rescue services had abandoned them at sea with impunity. In November 2022, Le Monde revealed the content of the unbearable exchanges between the shipwreck victims and the CROSS. The shipwrecked passengers were treated with cynicism and international laws governing rescue at sea were disregarded. A few weeks after the shipwreck, the organisation Utopia 56, with relatives of people who died, filed a complaint against French authorities for "involuntary manslaughter" and "failure to render assistance". The nine military personnel from CROSS Gris-Nez and a French patrol boat interviewed as part of the judicial enquiry took responsibility for all the decisions taken on that terrible night, but do not believe they were at fault. Although the French government had promised an internal enquiry following the revelations in Le Monde, it never took place. On the contrary, the defendants have the support of their superiors, who tried to interfere in the judicial investigation, as revealed by telephone taps. An investigation for breach of confidentiality has been opened.
A report published this month by the UK Department for Transport identified failings that led to the dinghy not being rescued by HM Coastguard that night: poor visibility, lack of aerial surveillance, and a lack of staff in the control room in Dover to process SOS calls… The legal team representing one of the victim’s families described the events as an “overall display of chaos”. The British government also announced an independent inquiry into the shipwreck, after the report was published. However, the report fails to explain why over 30 people were left in distress for 12 hours, while the Coastguard rescued other boats that night, nor why migrants have no other choice but to risk their lives at sea, when every other safe route to the UK is blocked to them.
Again and again, political and military authorities refuse to take responsibility for their role in this shipwreck and are attempting to cover it up.
Since 1999, at least 385 people have died trying to reach the UK. Hit by vehicles on the motorway, electrocuted by a live wire on the Eurotunnel site, asphyxiated in the trailers of lorries in Essex in England, died by suicide, drowned in the canal whilst trying to bathe, died due to poor living conditions in the camps, and drowned in the Channel.
In recent years, the frequency of deaths at the border has only accelerated. Since 24 November 2021, at least 45 migrants have died at this border. The deaths continue to pile up and nothing changes. On the contrary, the French, Belgian and British authorities are stubbornly pursuing their racist and security-focused immigration approaches to make this border area ever more hostile for migrants.
In France, the new asylum-immigration bill heralds an even more anti-migrant turn by the Macron government. On the northern coast this month, migrants’ rights organisations denounced a "catastrophic situation" for people exiled, who are not receiving shelter during storm Ciaran and the cold, nor access to water or food distributions - while police eviction operations continue. In Belgium, the government continues to deny decent accommodation to people seeking safety, leaving families and children on the streets, despite multiple convictions in court. Furthermore, since 2021, Belgium has been supporting Frontex's Opal Coast aerial surveillance operation, whose mission is to assist the French and Belgian authorities in detecting and intercepting exiles attempting to cross the Channel to the United Kingdom. On the British side, the government has successively passed increasingly repressive measures against migrants, including a plan to deport people to Rwanda ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court, and a ban on asylum for people arriving in the UK "irregularly". Lastly, at the last Franco-British summit on 10 March 2023, the UK announced the release of £476 million (543 million euros) over 3 years for the deployment of 500 additional officers, the purchase of new surveillance equipment and drones, helicopters and aircraft, and the opening of a new detention centre in northern France.
The French, Belgian and British authorities have turned the shared border into a place of death. By refusing to welcome people and by militarising this border with an excessive number of repressive measures (kilometres of barriers, barbed wire, drones, multiple police patrols, Frontex aircraft), they are politically responsible for every single one of these deaths. We know that the increasing militarisation of the border does not stop people taking journeys, but simply makes these journeys more dangerous and life-threatening.
We, Belgian, British, and French organisations, collectives, and activists, support the actions taken by victims' relatives and families before the courts, to ensure that the truth on exactly what happened on that murderous night is exposed, and justice is achieved.
From Dunkirk to Folkestone and from London to Zeebrugge, we stand together to call for an urgent and radical change in the policies pursued at this and other European borders. The rights of migrants must be fully respected and the values and principles of welcome and free movement must replace the racist logic of deadly border violence. We stand in solidarity with all those displaced. They should not face the further trauma of militarised and violent borders when they seek safety in Belgium, France or the UK.
As long as the Belgian, British, and French governments continue to coordinate simultaneous violence at the shared border and as long as people need and desire to move across borders, our solidarity and work must continue to reach beyond borders. We will continue to work together in solidarity with people on the move, to ensure that their rights are respected - starting with their right to life - and that justice is done when these rights are violated.
Signatories:
African Rainbow Family, United Kingdom
After Exploitation, United Kingdom
Alice Thiery, New Calledonia
All African Women's Group, London, England
Amira Elwakil, United Kingdom
ARACEM, Mali
BARAC UK, United Kingdom
Big Leaf Foundation, United Kingdom
Birmingham City of Sanctuary, United Kingdom
Birmingham Community Hosting Network (BIRCH), United Kingdom
Birmingham Schools of Sanctuary, United Kingdom
Calais Food Collective, France
Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group, United Kingdom
Camille Louis, France et Grèce
Captain Support UK, United Kingdom
Care4Calais, United Kingdom
Charles Stone, Oxford, England
Chenu Elisabeth, France
Choose Love, United Kingdom
CIRÉ, Belgium
CNCD-11.11.11, Belgium
Damien CAREME, France
Drag Down the Borders, United Kingdom
Eleanor Glynn, United Kingdom
Fabienne Augié, France
Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), United Kingdom
Freedom from Torture, United Kingdom
GISTI (Groupe d'information et de soutien des immigré⋅es), France
Giulia Teufel, Scotland
Global Women Against Deportations, London, England
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), United Kingdom
Groupe montois de soutien aux sans-papiers, Mons, Belgium
Haringey Welcome, United Kingdom
Here for Good, United Kingdom
Human Rights Observers (HRO), Calais and Grande-Synthe, France
Humans for Rights Network, United Kingdom
Inclusive Mosque Initiative, United Kingdom
Institute of Race Relations, England
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), United Kingdom
Julie HUOU, Nîmes, France
Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN), Kent, United Kingdom
Kevin Guilbert, Ham en Artois, France
L'Auberge des Migrants, France
La Cimade, France
La Resistencia, United States
Latin American Women's Rights Service (LAWRS), United Kingdom
Legal Action for Women, London, England
Loraine Masiya Mponela, England
Louis Fernier, Poitiers, France
Lu ndu, United Kingdom
Lucian Dee, London, United Kingdom
Manchester Migrant Solidarity Manchester, United Kingdom
Maria Hagan, France
Medact, United Kingdom
Médecins du Monde France / Programme nord littoral, France
Merseyside Solidarity Knows No Borders, United Kingdom
Migrant Voice, United Kingdom
Migrants in Culture, United Kingdom
Migrants Organise, United Kingdom
Migrants' Rights Network, United Kingdom
Migrations Libres, Belgium
Migreurop, réseau euro-africain
Morgan Guthrie, United Kingdom
MRAP-littoral dunkerquois, Dunkerque, France
NANSEN, the Belgian Refugee Council, Belgium
Ouvre Porte, France
Oxford Against Immigration Detention, Oxford, United Kingdom
Patricia Thiery, France
Payday men's network, United Kingdom and United States
Plateforme Citoyenne de Soutien aux Réfugiés – Belrefugees, Belgium
Play for Progress, London, United Kingdom
Project Play, France
Rainbow Migration, United Kingdom
Reclaim The Sea, United Kingdom
RefuAid, London, United Kingdom
Refugee Action, United Kingdom
Refugee Legal Support, London and Calais
Refugee Support Group, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Refugee Women's Centre, France
Remember & Resist, United Kingdom
Right to Remain, UK
Safe Passage International, United Kingdom
Safe Passage International, France
Social Workers Without Borders, United Kingdom
Stand For All, United Kingdom
Stories of Hope and Home, United Kingdom
Student Action for Refugees (STAR), United Kingdom
Terre d'errance Norrent-Fontes, France
The October Club, Oxford, United Kingdom
The Pickwell Foundation, Devon, United Kingdom
The Refugee Buddy Project Hastings Rother & Wealden, East Sussex, UK
The Runnymede Trust, United Kingdom
Tina Pho, United Kingdom
Toby Murray, London, United Kingdom
Tugba Basaran, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Utopia 56, France
Valérie Osouf, France
Vents Contraires, France
VVIDY (Voice of Voiceless Immigration Detainees-Yorkshire), United Kingdom
Welsh Refugee Council, Wales
Young Roots London, United Kingdom
