AMBLETEUSE, France (AP) — The rising tide crept above their waists, soaking the babies they hugged tightly. About a dozen Kurds refused to leave the cold waters of the English Channel in a vain attempt to delay the inevitable: French police had just foiled their latest attempt to reach Britain by boat.
The men, women and children were once again trapped at the final border of their journey from Iraq and Iran. They hoped that a rubber boat would give them a better life with housing, education and work. Now it disappeared over the horizon, with only a few passengers left on board.
On the beach of the quiet northern French town of Ambleteuse, police urged migrants to leave the 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) water, so cold it can be fatal within minutes. Do it for the sake of the children, they argued.
“The boat has left!” an increasingly irritated officer shouted in French-accented English. “It’s over! It’s over!”
The asylum seekers eventually emerged from the sea defeated, but there was no doubt that they would try to reach Britain again. They would not find the refuge they needed in France, or elsewhere in the European Union.
Increasingly strict European asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants drove them north. Although the British government has also been hostile, many migrants have family or friends in Britain and feel they will have more opportunities there.
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This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an Associated Press series on threats to democracy in Europe.
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EU rules stipulate that a person must apply for asylum in the first Member State in which he or she lands. This has overwhelmed countries on the fringes of the 27-nation bloc, such as Italy, Greece and Spain.
Some migrants no longer even try to build a new life in the EU. They even fly from Vietnam to France to try to cross the Channel after being denied permission to enter Britain, which has stricter visa requirements.
“Not happy here,” said Adam, an Iraqi father of six who was recently caught on the beach in May. He refused to give his surname due to his uncertain legal status in France. He had been unable to find education and housing for his children in France and had become frustrated by the lack of answers from the asylum office about his case. He thought things would be better in Britain, he said.
Although the number of people entering the EU without permission is nowhere near as high as during the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, far-right parties across Europe, including France, have exploited migration to the continent and scored major electoral victories in the most recent elections. European Parliament elections. Their rhetoric and the treatment already faced by many people on the French coast and elsewhere in the bloc clash with the stated principles of solidarity, openness and respect for human dignity that underlie the democratic EU, human rights defenders note.
In recent months, the normally quiet beaches around Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne-Sur-Mer have become the scene of cat-and-mouse games – even violent clashes – between police and smugglers. Police fired tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Smugglers have thrown stones.
While boat crossings across the Channel represent only a small part of migration to Britain, France agreed last year to stop migrants in return for hundreds of millions of euros. It is an agreement similar to those concluded by the European Union and North African countries in recent years. And although many people have been stopped by police, they are not offered alternative solutions and are likely to try to cross again.
About 10,500 people reached England in small boats in the first five months of the year, some 37% more than the same period last year, according to data published by the Home Office.
The increased border security increases risks and ultimately leads to more deaths closer to the coast, said Salomé Bahri, coordinator at the non-governmental organization Utopia 56, which helps migrants stranded in France. According to Utopia 56, at least 20 people have died trying to reach Britain so far this year. That’s almost as much as all of last year, according to statistics published by the International Organization for Migration.
People rush to avoid being captured by authorities and more deaths occur, Bahri said. In late April, five people died, including a seven-year-old girl who was crushed in a rubber boat after more than 110 people frantically boarded it while trying to escape police.
Authorities in northern France declined AP’s request for an interview but have previously defended the “life-saving” work of police and blamed smugglers for also attacking officers.
A spot on a flimsy dinghy can cost between 1,000 and 2,000 euros (about $1,100-$2,200), making it a lucrative business for the smuggling networks run mainly by Iraqi Kurdish groups. They can earn up to $1 million a month (about €920,000), according to a report published earlier this year by The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Sitting around a fire in an abandoned warehouse-turned-migrant camp in Calais, Mohammed Osman considered his limited options. The 25-year-old Sudanese man was studying medicine in Moscow when the civil war broke out in his home country a year ago. He put his dream of becoming a doctor on hold. Forced to flee the fighting, his family could no longer afford university fees and Osman was forced to leave Russia, where his visa allowed him to only study and not work. He crossed to Belarus and then to Poland, where he said he was pushed back and beaten several times by Polish guards.
He eventually reached the border and reached Germany, where he tried to apply for asylum but had to return to Poland under EU rules. All he wants now is to complete his medical studies in Great Britain, a country whose language he, like many other Sudanese, already speaks. The question, as always, is how we can get there. Talks of possible deportation to Rwanda have only caused more stress and frustration.
“So where is the legal path for me?” he asked. ‘I’m a good person. I know I can be a good doctor. …So what’s the problem?’
At another makeshift camp near Dunkirk, which police routinely try to clear, more dreams were held in suspense. Farzanee, 28, left Iran to follow her passion: becoming a professional bodybuilder. She was not allowed to participate in competitions at home and was persecuted because of her sport.
“I was even threatened by my family, that’s why I left my country,” she said, declining to give her surname out of fear for her and her loved ones’ safety.
Together with her husband, they managed to obtain a visa for France with a fake invitation letter. But even on EU territory they fear they could be deported back to Iran and believe only Britain is safe. They have tried – and failed – to board boats to Britain “seven or eight times” but have vowed to keep trying until they make it.
“We and other Iranians like me have one thing in common,” explains Farzanee’s husband Mohammad. “If you ask them, they will tell you: ‘free to live or die.’”
A few days after this interview, Mohammad and his wife Farzanee reached Britain safely
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AP video journalist Ahmad Seir contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
