Channel drownings fail to deter desperate migrants
Tuesday’s deaths in the English Channel have, as usual, done nothing to deter the smuggling gangs from launching more flimsy, overcrowded boats from the French coastline. A BBC team watched a packed inflatable craft heading north, close to shore, early on Wednesday morning. An hour later, a similar boat – very possibly the same one – was seen veering towards a French beach favoured by smugglers near the town of Wimereux to pick up even more paying customers. French police rushed to intercept the group before they could clamber on board, but arrived moments too late. The boat set off with well over 40 people on it, some standing or clinging to the sides. While investigations into Tuesday’s disaster continue, local authorities chose to send bulldozers and teams of cleaners to dismantle the makeshift migrant camp outside Calais that was used by many of those who were on the boat that capsized. “I’m stressed. I knew some of the [dead]. The police have now taken my tent and all my things,” said a 23-year-old Eritrean man who asked us to hide his identity. French officials have suggested that most - if not all – of those who died were from the troubled east African nation of Eritrea. Many young men have abandoned the country in order to avoid military service. “I’ve been waiting here a year. I don’t have money [to pay the smugglers]. It happens all the time – the drownings,” said the Eritrean, who remains determined to cross to the UK, believing he can find work there. Follow link for full story...