France (Washington Insider Magazine) -It has been estimated that almost 1,000 migrants crossed the channel from France to the south of Britain on Monday in what is expected to be a record number for a single day.
Out of the roughly 1,000 around 200 of the people who arrived at UK beaches intercepted. The heatwave and gentle sea gave smuggling gangs the perfect opportunity to direct a small group of overcapacity tiny rigid-hulled boats and dinghies to British shores.
In comparison to the 1,000 people who made it across, the French border and coast guards prevented only 200 others from crossing by boat on the same day.
Although the absolute numbers are still minuscule compared to the population and resources of both former empires, the numbers of migrants crossing illegally via the channel has climbed since last year. Only 8,417 people were recorded to have reached the UK from France in 2020 but the total for 2021 already stands at 13,500.
Although migrants come from all parts of the world for a variety of reasons, it is those from Africa and the Middle East who most catch the eye of the strong xenophobic movement in Western Europe. Both France and Britain still benefit greatly from their legacy of imperialism. The Jubilee Debt Campaign estimated that annually $40 billion more leaves Africa than is received by the resource-rich but impoverished continent. The Middle East has also suffered from decades of devastating invasions that has left cities flattened and populations in exodus.
Yet two countries with some of the world’s highest standards of living seem intent on trying to degradingly flick small numbers of humans back and forth between one another.
British PM Boris Johnson said “we are doing everything we can to encourage the French to do the necessary and impede their passage” before insisting “we use every possible tactic available to us as well.”
The spat is made particularly tense between London and Paris because seven weeks ago Britain agreed to pay France £54 million to enforce their border channel more strictly. Since the payment over 5,000 migrants have made the journey to Britain.
MP Natalie Elphicke of PM Johnson’s ruling Conservative party said she wanted new laws that allowed the British Border Force to turn the overcrowded boats back into the ocean.
