– 12 refugees drowned in the English Channel – will the strict policy lead to more deaths?
After the drama off the northern French coast, the government and aid organizations are arguing about figures. In focus: Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Published today at 14:39
Dozens of people were rescued, but for 12 people seeking protection, help came too late: emergency services and bodies in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Photo: Denis Charlet (AFP)
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BotTalk
“Small boats”: This is the English term used by the French to describe the rubber boats that smugglers have been using to bring migrants from the northern French coast across the English Channel to Great Britain for a few years now – more precisely, since 2018, when the entrances to the shipping ports and the tunnel under the strait were barricaded with high fences. “Small boats” is a euphemism: they are often grotesquely too small for the number of passengers they are supposed to transport. The term has therefore become a synonym for an increasingly dangerous, deadly phenomenon.
