Amira Al Shammari says they have no other options as she describes horror of 21-year-old Dina’s death
A mother from a stateless Arab minority say she and her family have no choice but to try to cross the Channel again despite the death last month of her eldest daughter on a previous attempt.
Dina Al Shammari, 21, was travelling with her parents and three teenage siblings when she was crushed to death in an overcrowded dinghy off the coast of Calais on 28 July.
Continue reading...Irish Ferries says all passengers and crew are accounted for after flames discovered in engine room
Three lifeboats and a French salvage tug were launched after a fire broke out on board a ferry in the Channel.
Irish Ferries, which owns the vessel, said all passengers and crew were safe and accounted for after flames were discovered in the engine room of the Isle of Innisfree at about 5:30pm on Friday. The ferry was about halfway across the Channel on a journey from Dover to Calais.
Continue reading...Care4Calais says it offers refugees aid and dignity and does not want them to cross Channel by dangerous means
A volunteer organisation has dismissed a claim by the new Conservative deputy chair that Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people-smugglers”.
Lee Anderson, who was given the role by Rishi Sunak during the prime minister’s recent reshuffle, accused refugee organisations based in northern France of “fuelling” people’s desire to cross the English Channel in small boats.
Continue reading...Home Office rejects suggestions strikes by Border Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and Coquelles impacting wait times
Children and teachers returning to the UK from half-term school trips have endured delays of more than six hours at Calais, amid strike action by Border Force staff.
P&O Ferries told customers that long wait times were “due to the queues at border control who are also on strike”, though the government rejected suggestions that industrial action was having an impact on wait times.
Continue reading...British citizens trying to bring their families to the UK are grappling bureaucracy in Paris despite new visa rules
A Ukrainian woman and her 15-year-old diabetic daughter say they are feeling increasingly distraught after escaping the conflict in Ukraine only to be blocked from a visa the UK government announced on Sunday evening for which they are eligible.
Yakiv Voloshchuk, 60, a British citizen, rescued his wife, Oksana Voloshchuk, 41, and their daughter, Veronika, from Poland on 26 February.
Continue reading...UK home secretary addresses Commons after 27 people – including at least one pregnant woman and three children - drown off UK coast
The MP for Calais Pierre Henri Dumont told Sky News that he believes 29 bodies have been found.
British Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said: “Reports of more lives lost today in theChannel are truly heartbreaking and come far too soon after other recent deaths on this route.
Continue reading...Celebrity-backed funder pulls support from seven frontline charities helping migrants as winter approaches
Seven charities working to provide food, water, blankets and other essential aid to refugees in northern France have warned that they might have to stop their work because celebrity-backed funder Choose Love is ending its financial support.
The charities provide a lifeline to refugees who are hoping to seek sanctuary in the UK, often attempting Channel crossings by small boats. The deteriorating weather as winter approaches makes living conditions for the estimated 2,000 migrants in Calais, who are destitute and often forced to sleep outside, more precarious.
Continue reading...The refugee camp became notorious in 2015, as 1 million people fled war and danger to come to Europe. Years after it was demolished, 2,000 migrants are still waiting there, at the centre of a political storm
A small group of Ethiopian and Eritrean men stand shoeless and shivering in Calais. A few hours earlier, they almost drowned in the Channel, trying to cross to the UK. They got into difficulty when the motor on their boat failed. Their jeans are stiff and sodden with sand and seawater.
“We called the French coastguard to rescue us but they told us to call the English coastguard,” says one man. “Eventually, the French rescued us and brought us back to Calais.
Migrants and police at the ‘Old Lidl’ site in Calais. The police clear the site regularly, evicting anyone living there and seizing remaining belongings.
Continue reading...As the UK pours millions into security measures, migrants say the gangs who control the Channel just get more powerful
“Sorry, my battery’s low because I drained it watching YouTube tutorials on how to assemble dinghies,” Abuzar says. He is speaking on a video call from the abandoned shed in Calais he calls home. “I want to join my brother for asylum in the UK, but I have to work for smugglers because I don’t have enough money to pay for the crossing.
“They hide boat parts on the beaches for me to assemble at night, but I’m so scared– – if I mess it up, children could drown on the boat.”
Continue reading...Relentless and escalating programme of refugee evictions amounts to a campaign of harassment, say activists
Shortly before sunrise on 9 January, about 40 officers and officials gathered outside Calais police station as temperatures dipped to -3C (26.6F). Shortly after, in a well-drilled procedure, a nine-vehicle convoy started down the road towards the first of five forced evictions of makeshift refugee camps planned for that morning.
When the convoy arrived at the camp, just a few miles from the city centre, masked police in black uniforms chased refugees away from their tents and belongings. Some of the other 150 refugees who had been sheltering at the camp had already packed and fled before authorities arrived. Soon the camp was empty; frost-covered sleeping bags and jackets were all that remained.
Continue reading...Coastguard confirms swimmer is well and he will be checked over by ambulance staff
A nearly eight-hour search for a person trying to swim from Dover to Calais unaccompanied has ended after he was spotted by a passing vessel.
Emergency services launched a major operation to try to locate the male swimmer, who was eventually found just 500 metres off Dover.
Continue reading...Two refugees’ efforts to reach Dover reflect persecution in Sudan and rising tensions over migrants in Europe
On the night he attempted to cross the Channel, Abdulfatah Hamdallah left his blanket and bicycle behind at the camp in Calais.
They were the only possessions he would leave behind: his backpack was lost at sea when he drowned attempting to make the perilous crossing over the Dover Strait to England in a dinghy, with shovels for oars.
Continue reading...Natacha Bouchart tells PM sending Navy ships into French waters is ‘a declaration of maritime war’
The mayor of the French port city of Calais has told Boris Johnson to “calm down” and change strategy in dealing with migrants crossing from France.
“I consider Boris Johnson’s pronouncements to be a provocation,” said Natacha Bouchart, mayor of the town that is a main embarkation point for the small, overcrowded migrant boats seeking to cross the Channel this summer.
Continue reading...Group with severe hypothermia among several taken back to France on Saturday
Migrants rescued after their boat capsized were among several groups to have tried to cross the Channel on Saturday.
The four individuals were spotted by a passing passenger ferry and picked up by the French navy. They were found to have severe hypothermia and taken to the French port of Calais.
Continue reading...With over 1,000 refugees and migrants left without proper sanitation, water supplies or food there is no way to contain virus, say volunteers
The last remaining volunteers working with refugees and migrants in northern France have warned that Covid-19 is spreading quickly through the makeshift camps where over 1,000 people are sheltering without proper sanitation, water supplies or food.
Care4Calais, one of the only organisations still providing emergency services to migrants and refugees in Calais, said the number of people exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 rose from two to nine in just three days last week.
Continue reading...Kent youth asylum seeker charity has seen a 50% rise in demand for its services since December 2018
Bridget Chapman, who swims regularly in the Channel, wasn’t surprised when desperate asylum seekers began travelling to the UK on small dinghy boats last year. On a clear day she can see France’s coastline from where she lives in Folkestone, Kent. “If you’re stuck in Calais and you can see the British coast quite clearly, it must be really tempting to think: I’ll just get a boat,” she said.
It has been a year since the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, declared the increasing number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel a “major incident”, but boat arrivals are still a regular occurrence. On Boxing Day this year, more than 60 migrants were picked up while attempting to cross in small boats.
Continue reading...New systems to ensure smooth transit of goods are tested in France before UK’s exit from EU
The Port of Calais has staged a no-deal Brexit rehearsal to test new systems ahead of the UK’s anticipated departure from the EU on 31 October. Michael Gove, the minister in charge of no-deal planning, witnessed the practice run during a visit to France on Friday afternoon.
Related: Rebel MPs confident they have time to stop no-deal Brexit
Continue reading...Mohamad Rahimeh found a talent for cooking in the Calais refugee camp. Now he has a viable business in London
When Mohamad Rahimeh arrived in the Calais refugee camp that was nicknamed “the Jungle”, cooking was the last thing on his mind. He was a political scientist from Syria with a journey from hell behind him. Food was just a means to an end.
But when a close friend fell sick, he rustled up a meal of eggs. A hidden talent was uncovered.
Continue reading...