LONDON (dpa-AFX) – According to official figures, more than 28,500 people crossed the English Channel towards Great Britain on small boats last year. This is according to figures published by the British Home Office on Thursday. This is a significant increase compared to previous years: According to the information, almost 8,500 people crossed the English Channel in 2020, and only around 1,800 in 2019.
In the past, migrants often tried to hide in lorries or on trains to get to the UK. However, tightened controls due to the pandemic and Brexit have made this more difficult, which is why dangerous crossings across the English Channel have increased. At the end of November last year, 27 people died when their overcrowded boat sank.
According to the information, last year 30 percent of the arrivals came from Iran, a good fifth from Iraq and around a fifth each from Eritrea and Syria. Three quarters were males aged 18 to 39.
The British government wants to get the crisis under control with increased penalties for people smugglers and stricter asylum legislation. Regaining control of its own borders was one of the central Brexit promises made by the conservative British government. Human rights organizations, on the other hand, are calling for legal routes to be created for refugees to enter Great Britain./swe/DP/eas