UK ‘stop the boats’ policy raising risk of deadly crushes on dinghies, NGOs say

Refugees are being crammed into boats on French beaches in ever-increasing numbers, human rights groups have said, leading to an increased risk of crushing and suffocation as a result of the UK’s “stop the boats” policy.

A seven-year-old girl is among at least eight people who have died of suffocation on a dinghy in the Channel in less than a year.

There were seven deaths in four incidents over 16 days last month, the highest number since small boat crossings began, according to NGOs monitoring them.

They have said that heavy policing of beaches in France to deter the smugglers could cause more deaths unless the UK government introduces safe-passage policies.

The most recent death, on 28 July, involved a Syrian woman believed to have suffocated while in a dinghy. Organisations such as Utopia 56, which supports displaced and homeless people in France; and Alarm Phone , which monitors the Channel and the Mediterranean and passes on distress calls to the coastguard, have blamed the increased frequency of fatal incidents and the emergence of suffocation as a cause of death on the UK’s crackdown on small boats.

An Alarmphone spokesperson said: “We believe that at least 62 people have died at the UK border since March 2023, when the UK and France signed their latest deal to ‘stop the boats’. Of those, 39 people died in sea crossing related incidents and eight of those were crushed to death in the dinghy. Are these numbers within the acceptable limits for the UK and French governments?”

Britain is funding more aggressive French policing on the beaches. In March 2023, £478m was given for 500 extra officers, a new detention centre and other measures to stop people getting into dinghies to cross the Channel.

The number of dinghies available has also decreased after attempts by the UK and others to disrupt the supply chain in countries where they are sourced, such as Germany and Turkey. French police sometimes slash the boats with knives, rendering them useless.

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This has led to dinghies departing in great haste before they are properly inflated and with larger numbers of people packed into them, increasing the likelihood of crushing.

In an incident on 23 April, five people were crushed to death , including Sara Alhashimi, seven, from Iraq. There were reportedly 112 people on the boat.

In an incident on 26 September last year a boat left Sangatte beach near Calais and a 24-year-old Eritrean woman onboard was reportedly crushed and suffocated.

It is possible there are more cases that have not been recorded as a result of the chaotic and overcrowded situation on dinghies, where many of those onboard do not know each other and speak many different languages.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to see an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.

“The new government is taking steps to boost our border security, setting up a new border security command which will bring together our intelligence and enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terror-style powers and hundreds of personnel stationed in the UK and overseas, to smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions in profit.”