KIDS WILL DIE
Warning over danger route » Migrants risk all to get to UK
THE bodies of children could wash up on British beaches as peoplesmuggling gangs use a dangerous new route across the Channel.
Two weeks ago, a group of 14 desperate migrants became the first to attempt the 80km (50 mile) crossing from Belgium to England.
The route is double the length of the shortest trip from France (21 miles), but tighter security has seen criminals force refugees to take ever greater risks.
A Mirror investigation found asylum seekers paid €4,000 (£3,400) for a place on the boat, with two Afghan girls aged just three and six also on board.
But the group ended up swimming for their lives after their vessel sank on a freezing cold night. Ramin, 24, who 50 miles from De Panne to nearest part of UK coastline was forced to flee Iran two months ago, told the Mirror: “The boat sank very fast – in about 30 seconds… I wasn’t scared for myself, I was scared for the children – the water was freezing. “So I didn’t swim away, I just stayed in the water to help them out of the boat. The weight of my clothes was pulling me down, so I threw away my shoes and trousers.
“I can swim, but my right leg began cramping because of the cold. I was scared I wouldn’t reach the beach.”
Bram Degrieck is Mayor of the Belgian town of De Panne, from where the boat launched. He said: “This boat was not suitable to take out to sea…. I wouldn’t want to float it on my pond in the back garden, let alone put 14 people on it.
“Our fear was we would be pulling
Dinghy on the shore bodies out of the sea. I don’t want to have a child washed up on our beach.”
The alarm was raised in De Panne at 5am on January 21 when a hypothermic migrant arrived at an apartment block begging for help.
Only life jackets and luck prevented all 14 on board from losing their lives.
Many of those on the boat stay at La Liniere camp, near Dunkirk. Around 500 people – including children as young as two – live in appalling conditions.
Clare Moseley, of charity Care4Calais, which supports refugees in France and Belgium, said of the attempt: “They are aware of the risks but feel they have no choice – there are no other options available to them. Four people died crossing the Channel last year. We will never know if the true figure is higher.
“It there was a safe and legal way for people to apply for asylum in the UK, there would be no smugglers and the dangers would be gone.”