Another anniversary we should never want to Forget

One year ago,on 24/11.22 a rubber dinghy carrying 34 people sank in the English Channel. There were two survivors. in what was the worst disaster on record involving migrants in the sea separating France and the United Kingdom, an incident that shocked people around the world.

They all had different hopes and dreams. Many were trying to flee violence, persecution or hardship in their own country. Some were seeking to reunite with their family and partners. Others wanted to find work here to support the family they’d left behind. All were hoping to find safety and security. 

The incident came amid record numbers of asylum seekers attempting to cross the Channel and further highlighted the dehumanisation and objectification of migrant ‘bodies at borders’.

The British government steadfastly refused to take responsibility, instead pointed the finger of blame at the French for failing to stop people smugglers operating on the beaches near Calais.

In the 3 hours it took for the boat to sink, distress messages flooded in from those on board, yet French and British coastguards debated whose responsibility it was to rescue them. No help came, as one by one the passengers died of cold or drowned. 

Evidence from the two survivors, phone calls, text messages and emails unveiled the horror of the disaster. The phone conversations suggested that neither the French nor the British coastguards wanted to take responsibility, each believing the vessel to be in the other's waters.

A preliminary report, put together by a law firm representing the victims' families, said that the first calls for help were made around 2am and continued for over two hours, with the passengers increasingly begging for help.

Logs published by the Le Monde newspaper   last weekend indicate that they tried to contact both French and English rescue services, but were not rescued before the captain of a private boat reported bodies floating in the water in the strait of Calais – 12 hours after the first mayday call on 24 November 2021.

The account only covers the response by French authorities, because logs and other evidence from the British coastguard are subject to a separate investigation that has not yet published its findings.

The first call to the French coastguard was recorded at 1.51am local time, when a passenger stayed on the phone for 14 minutes begging for help for more than 30 people on board the inflatable boat. 

 “We need help, if you please, help us,” the man was recorded saying.

Minutes later, a telephone conversation between British and French authorities reportedly indicated that the boat was in French waters around half a mile from the nautical border.

Migrants continued to call for help, but at 2.33am logs show that French authorities instructed them to call 999 because they were in British waters at that point.

They were given the same message in further calls before the boat is believed to have overturned around 3am. 

Half an hour later, logs compiled by French lawyers show that a survivor on the phone to French authorities said people were in the water but was told: “Yes, but you are in English waters.”

Records show that shortly after 4am, British authorities told their French counterparts that they had received a distress call but found nothing at the reported location of the boat. 

French authorities formally closed their operation at around 4.30am after calls ceased and a French fisherman found the victims’ bodies the next day. 

We now know far more about what the French coastguard did that night. But the British actions are covered-up. The French coastguard disclosed its record of emergency calls to lawyers as part of a French investigation. The British authorities have not.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch, tasked with investigating the worst loss of life in the Channel in over 30 years, to add further injury  will not present its findings until next year and has yet to get in touch with most of the families of the dead, despite receiving their contact details. The families have also been denied access to recordings of their loved ones’ final calls for help.

The unmistakable message conveyed by such responses is that these deaths don’t matter and that the families of the deceased are unworthy of respect. But the  people who died in the Channel  have names, lives, stories, and families, and should  not be forgotten.

These drownings were not an isolated incident, over the last 20 years, many other asylum seekers have also died trying to cross the Channel to the UK. And in the 365 days since those 31 people drowned, nearly 44,000 have made the dangerous crossing and the numbers are only going up, according to data from the PA news agency.

Under the UK government’s hostile environment policy, many legal immigration routes have been closed and the rights of asylum seekers have been severely curtailed. The increasing number of people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats in recent years appears to be linked to the closing down of other routes.

Thus, far from tackling a dangerous migration process, the British government’s actions seem to be feeding this route and as a consequence will guarantee more drownings.The simple truth is that people fleeing war and persecution will continue to risk making these perilous  frightening journeys. whether by boat or other means, if  the government refuse to share responsibility for providing safe access to a kinder, fairer and more effective properly functioning asylum system

On the anniversary of the tragedy, refugee and migrant support groups joined relatives at memorial events  across the country and, through calls for a public inquiry into the events, made it clear that callous indifference to the lives and deaths of migrants and refugees will not be tolerated.

They also called for an end to the poisonous rhetoric used by our politicians – calling innocent refugees ‘illegal migrants’ or, worse, ‘an invasion’ – that only serves to breed more fear and division.Demanding safe and legal passage to refugees to allow them to claim asylum in Britain without risking their lives in the Channel.

By shutting down ordinary routes for people to seek asylum in the UK, the Tory government has encouraged ever more dangerous smuggling operations that have become a last resort for those desperate enough to put themselves in smugglers hands. If the UK government really cares and wants to put people smugglers out of business, the simple demands for safe and legal passage would ensure they would disappear overnight. and more importantly, it would safe lives. On behalf of the the victims and their families of the the 24 November tragedy we must continue to demand change.