DINGHIES OF DEATH
»»Smugglers pack migrants on to DIY boats
GANGS of people smugglers are sending desperate migrants to sea on death trap boats.
Four flimsy DIY rafts were found at Dungeness beach in Kent yesterday – hours after 27 people died trying to cross the Channel on a similar boat.
Cobbled together with plywood, heavy-duty PVC and gaffer tape, the boats all seemed to be made to the same design, each 8m in length, with inflatable PVC pontoons either side of a plywood base.
It suggests the smugglers are getting round a shortage of boats in northern France by building their own.
Peter Faulding, of Specialist Group International, which carries out sea rescues, said: “These boats are amateur. There’s not a chance I’d go out to sea in one. If I put my team on one I’d expect to be brought to court.
“The French police need to find this outfit quickly, because if they keep making these boats lots more people are going to die in the Channel.”
Items left in the boats included cold weather clothing, kids’ shoes and Nautamine travel sickness tablets. Each boat had at least one cheap bike pump – in case of deflation – and cutoff plastic bottles for emptying water.
Another four boats, made by named manufacturers, had been pulled up at the same beach, two of them Kolibri KM750-D Rigid Inflatable Boats.
The Kolibri boats advise a maximum load of six people or 800kg but gangs have been cramming 20 to 30 people into their DIY versions.
Of the migrants packed on to the boat that sank on Wednesday, only two survived, an Iraqi and a Somalian.
Last night it was confirmed some of the victims were Kurds from Iraq. Yesterday, the body of a refugee who drowned was found on a beach at Sangatte, near Calais. It brought the toll to 27 – three children, seven women, one of them pregnant, and 17 men. Five men in custody in France face manslaughter charges in connection with their deaths.
Prosecutors believe the gang operated from Germany, driving migrants to the French beaches overnight.
So far this month, 6050 migrants have arrived in the UK in 182 boats, bringing the total this year to 25,772.
But the smugglers continued their deadly trade yesterday, sending boats across the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Fifty migrants are believed to have crossed on two boats brought into Dover Marina, Kent, in darkness before 5am.
PM Boris Johnson yesterday wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron with a five-point plan to stop the Channel crossings.
The measures include joint patrols of French beaches, airborne surveillance, better intelligence
sharing and a bilateral returns deal with France. Johnson said: “If those who reach this country were swiftly returned, the incentive for people to put their lives in the hands of traffickers would be reduced.
“It would be the single biggest step we could take together to reduce the draw to northern France and break the business model of criminal gangs.”
But President Macron said: “We are going to ask for extra help from the British because all these men and women do not want to stay in France.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel admitted there is “no quick fix”. She said: “This is about addressing long-term pull factors, smashing the criminal gangs that treat human beings as cargo and tackling supply chains.”
She had made a “very clear” offer to French counterpart Gerald Darmanin to provide UK officers for joint patrols.
But Calais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont dismissed the “crazy” proposal, saying it would “not change anything” along the vast shoreline of northern France.
Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon called for “humanitarian routes” to be opened up to give people safe migration routes to the UK.
The First Minister pleaded for the root causes of migration to be addressed and made an appeal for the issue not to be politicised into a blame game between the UK and France.
Sturgeon tweeted: “Those seeking refuge from dreadful conditions are human beings not political footballs.
“They’re driven to smugglers out of desperation and lack of humanitarian routes. This, and root causes, need addressed if such tragedies aren’t to be endlessly repeated.”
Asylum claims in the UK have hit their highest level for almost 20 years, and the backlog of cases is at a record high, Home Office figures show.
A total of 37,562 applications were made in the year to September, up 18 per cent on the previous period.
The Home Office said the rise was in part due to an easing of Covid travel restrictions but also to “an increase in small boat arrivals to the UK (of which almost all claim asylum)”.
Human rights experts have condemned the Government’s Nationality and Borders Bill, which contains measures to reduce asylum claims.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, of Amnesty International, said it is “draconian” and would “continue to punish and exclude people seeking safety”.
No10 said that scenes of migrants continuing to arrive on UK beaches yesterday showed the need to crack down on the trafficking trade.
Johnson’s spokesman said: “It illustrates we need to step up our work with our French counterparts to dismantle this horrific trade.”
Hundreds gathered in Calais, Paris and Dunkirk last night at vigils for the victims of Wednesday’s disaster. The boat is thought to have left LoonPlage, near Dunkirk, and sank after possibly colliding with a ship at the limit of French territorial waters.
These boats are amateur. There is not a chance I would go out to sea in one of those PETER FAULDING OWNER OF SPECIALIST GROUP INTERNATIONAL