Field Note #006: Our Borders Kill

On Thursday 12 July, 120 people attempting to cross the Channel were rescued off the coast of Dunkerque and brought back to France (https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/34305/one-dead-and-120-migrants-rescued-in-channel). An Eritrean man, known as M., who was on one of the boats that capsized died not long after in a hospital in Calais.

A memorial was held for M. on Sunday 15 July in Dunkerque, attended by members of the Eritrean community in Dunkerque and volunteers from the various NGOs working in the area including Mobile Refugee Support, Utopia56 and the Refugee Women’s Centre. This is the second death at the Anglo-French border this year, the result of increased securitisation of the English Channel by both the UK and French governments.

This year, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, announced a pledge of over €62 million to enhancing security at the border, following €32 million last year and over €300 million between 2010 and 2019. Increased patrolling of the beaches around Calais, where the distance across the Channel to the UK is the shortest has forced people wishing to cross to take longer, more perilous routes from further up and down the coast.

The authorities use deaths such as these to highlight the need for increased policing, to stamp out these so-called ‘illegal’ crossings and prevent further deaths. But in reality, these desperate attempts to cross the Channel are precisely the result of their policies. What is needed, more than ever, is a safe and legal route to the UK and an end to the State hostility towards the migrants in northern France.

For many of the holiday-goers at the beach in Calais and travellers arriving by ferry this Sunday, the narrow sliver of sea is innocent, beautiful, a source of pleasure or a minor obstacle. However, for the migrants in northern France, crossing it is a matter of life and death.

Following the incident on Thursday, the Eritrean community in Dunkerque was asked to leave by the other migrant communities in the area for reasons currently unknown. It is uncertain where they will go next.