A dinghy loaded with migrants seeking to cross the English Channel sits off the coast near Calais, France, on Feb. 2. (Emin Ozmen/Magnum Photos/For The Washington Post)
The scene on a French beach illustrates the dangers of English Channel crossings, as well as how thousands of migrants make it across to Britain.
GRAVELINES, France — By the time the French police arrived, the migrants were already in waist-deep, numbing waters, clambering onto an overcrowded dinghy that arrived by sea. But the boat was too full and the engine wouldn’t start. A handful of police officers watched the migrants for an hour as they struggled to get it going.
As the sun rose, a few migrants reluctantly climbed off and waded back to shore. They stood beside the officers as the engine finally roared to life, and the boat pushed off toward England.
The scene on the beach in northern France offered a glimpse of how thousands of migrants are able to make it across the world’s busiest waterway without being stopped.
Nearly 37,000 people successfully crossed the English Channel last year, the second-highest figure on record — attributable in part to smugglers who have developed new tactics to exploit a French policy that keeps police from intervening when the boats are already in the water. The high numbers of crossings has contributed to the reemergence of migration as a top concern in Britain for the first time since the 2016 Brexit referendum, prompting a renewed push to curb the flow.
The British government has vowed to “smash the gangs” that orchestrate migrant crossings. Migration researchers are skeptical, though, that newly proposed policies would have significant impact — especially because gangs are nowhere to be seen when these boats launch, and in some cases are on a different continent altogether.
Smugglers also know how to take advantage of policy gaps. French police try to destroy dinghies onshore; last year, they stopped 28,000 small-boat crossings. But if the migrants and their boats are already in the water? The police look on.
How the British government plans to ‘smash the gangs’
Legislation recently proposed by the British government would criminalize activity related to preparations for a crossing, including handling boat parts and collecting “information for use in immigration crime,” which could include something as simple as checking the weather. It would also grant counterterrorism-like powers to police to seize and search cellphones to track smuggling networks.
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Vicky Taylor, a migration expert at Oxford University, is concerned that instead of stopping organized crime or deaths in the channel, the bill will broaden criminal charges against migrants themselves. “It’s likely it will scapegoat people on the move,” she said.
Migration studies have found that most people steering the boats are not part of criminal networks; they are migrants given a discount on the fees they have to pay to smugglers.
Smuggling is highly lucrative: Buying a boat from Germany might cost about 5,000 euros (roughly $5,400), but filling it with migrants can generate more than 100,000 euros (about $108,000).
In most cases, though, crossing the channel is just one part of a long journey and is organized by individuals or loosely affiliated groups in Europe. If those smugglers are arrested, others quickly take their place.
Paolo Campana, an expert in human smuggling at the University of Cambridge, said a more promising approach to the problem would be focusing on “upstream opportunities,” as the leaders of the sophisticated, organized gangs are based closer to where migrants are coming from — in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey. Campana acknowledged British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s efforts to work with counterparts in France, Germany, Italy, Iraq, Tunisia and elsewhere. “International cooperation is essential,” he said, as is addressing the causes of migration. “If you just increase policing, you drive more clandestine and risky behaviors.”
What French police are doing on the beaches
The British and French governments have signed multiple deals over the years to coordinate border enforcement on either side of the channel. On March 6, they agreed to what they are calling an “Upstream Working Group Roadmap,” to strengthen cooperation against people-smuggling and irregular migration. A few days earlier, they agreed to a new unit in Dunkirk, France, to step up smuggler arrests and prosecutions.
French police already regularly patrol the beaches with four-wheel-drive vehicles, drones, planes and thermal cameras. Utopia 56, a nongovernmental organization that provides clothing and food to migrants in the area, showed The Washington Post videos of police spraying tear gas at migrants and puncturing and burning boats on the beach.
But when a boat is in the water, the dynamics change. French policy is to intervene only if passengers require rescue.
From the shore at Gravelines, The Post saw the coast guard throw an orange life buoy to a migrant who fell from a boat. Sometimes the coast guard will accompany the boats to British waters, ensuring their safe passage.
That approach is in line with international maritime law, which creates an obligation to rescue people in danger at sea and discourages intervention that may further endanger life. In the channel, rescue efforts can be complicated by the reluctance of migrants to be rescued by the French and returned to French shores.
The French approach in the channel, though, differs from what has been happening in the Mediterranean. There, Italy and the European Union, which includes France, have funded, trained and equipped the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrant boats at sea. Officially, the goal is to save lives and protect migrants from smuggling networks. In practice, researchers and rescue groups have documented, boats are regularly stopped while underway and their passengers forced to return to shore, where in some cases they have been subjected to inhumane treatment by Libyan authorities.
How smugglers have adapted
Smugglers have figured out how to capitalize on the deference granted to boats in the water and to navigate around increased police patrols. The “taxi boat” approach, where boats arrive by sea to pick up other migrants who have waded into the water, has allowed migrants to bypass police on the beach. The smugglers are also increasingly launching from less-patrolled sections of a 155-mile coastline.
Departures usually happen quickly — and chaotically. Advocacy groups say this has contributed to more deaths, with boats capsizing or deflating or migrants wading out and getting sucked under by tidal currents or dying of hypothermia.
Last year, at least 78 people died attempting to cross the channel, the deadliest year on record. Most of those incidents occurred within sight of the French shore, according to Alarm Phone, a charity that helps boats in distress.
The French government says it is exploring the possibility of allowing land-based police and the coast guard to intervene in shallow waters. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau vowed to “rethink our approach” at a recent joint news conference with the British home secretary.
Virginie Guiraudon, a migration expert at the University of Lille Nord de France, said smugglers and migrants would adapt to that change, too, possibly by choosing even more remote launching points. “I am not sure that this would be less deadly,” she added.
Migrants remain undeterred
The heavy police presence in northern France has not deterred migrants. Many are fleeing conflict, persecution or poverty. They want to get to Britain because they speak English, have family ties or believe there are better opportunities in its informal labor market.
Navin, 27, of the Tajik ethnic group in Afghanistan, said he was beaten by the Taliban “like an animal” for not growing a beard and for speaking a different language. He has been living in one of the small, makeshift camps in northern France that sprang up after police demolished the “Jungle” encampment in 2016. These smaller camps, many in squalid conditions in the woods, are periodically cleared.
He agreed to meet discreetly in a parking lot away from the camp, and — like others interviewed for this article — spoke on the condition that only his first name be used, fearing retribution from smugglers he said carry small weapons. He said he paid 1,800 euros ($1,950) in advance for a crossing. Navin speaks excellent English — his father, a school principal, insisted he learn — and vowed to keep trying to make it to Britain.
Michael, a 28-year-old teacher from Sri Lanka, was one of the migrants who got off the overloaded boat observed by The Post. Walking alongside the police after his third failed attempt, he explained, “I have family in England.”
A police officer handed him a white blanket and told him he could heat his hands on the hood of their van. Looking out across the channel, his teeth chattering, Michael vowed to try again.