Crammed into a makeshift camp in Loon-Plage (Francia), hundreds of men, women and children are between Dunkirk and Calais, just 40 kilometers from the United Kingdom on a sea voyage that this week took the lives of 27 persons.
For Alex Fraser, director of refugee support for the Red Cross in the United Kingdom, he believes that what we are experiencing was “a matter of time with this increase in people doing these so dangerous trips“.
And it is that, so far in 2021, more than 25,700 people have arrived by sea to the UK, when in all of 2020 only 8,000 were registered. It contrasts with the descending number of asylum applications. For experts, there is an explanation, as Concepción Anguita, professor of International Relations, comments in the video: the lack of safe alternative routes.
The crisis stresses even more the relations between France and UK, which has requested by letter that its neighbors take care of the people who arrive at its shores. An action rejected by NGOs.
Indeed, this Sunday France brings together the Interior Ministers of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands to deal with the situation. The UK has not been invited.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
