On November 24th, 2021, a group of people – each unique and dearly loved – slowly froze to death in the icy waters of the English Channel while waiting for a rescue that never came.

Twenty-seven bodies were recovered and four are still missing, adding to the pain of the families  –  twenty-one men, seven women including one who was pregnant, and three children.

Today, two years on from this tragedy, we remember and honour them, alongside many more precious lives lost on dangerous journeys to the UK – we may never know exactly how many.

On that catastrophic night, their flimsy boat left France at around 10pm, but close to midnight, it began to deflate and sink in the middle of the Channel.

Between 2am and 4am, the passengers called the French and English authorities many times begging for help. But no one came.

The French authorities told them they were in British waters, and British officials told them they were in French waters. The transcripts of those desperate calls make for difficult reading – one passenger indicates that they are literally “in the water”. “Yes, but you are in English waters, Sir,” is the reply.

At around 3am the boat overturned, tipping all passengers into the water, where some drowned because of the waves. Over time, others resigned themselves to letting go as they were overwhelmed by the cold.

Eleven hours later – at 2pm the next day – a French fisherman spotted the bodies in the water and raised the alarm. When the French coastguard finally arrived, they found only two survivors.

We will never let the lives lost that night, or those of loved ones lost since, be forgotten. And for their families, we demand justice and change.

We long for people seeking safety on British shores to be seen as human beings, deserving of rights, compassion and dignity. Tragedies like this occur because of the ‘othering’ our politicians insist on – of the dehumanising of sons and fathers, mothers and daughters, friends and family members.

This rhetoric must change.

And so must this government’s policies.

Humans in search of safety deserve just that. This means safe routes for all refugees wishing to come to the UK – we need to improve resettlement and refugee family reunion schemes and make it easier for people to travel to the UK to claim asylum. That is the only way these tragedies will end.

We stand alongside the families of the victims, as they demand answers as to why French and British authorities failed desperate people who came asking for help. They also need to know when the results of the Article 2 Inquiry will be made public. The families have already waited two long years and deserve answers.

As a society that values compassion, we know that people fleeing the worst the world has to offer should be met with kindness. So, we demand that the division and fear of anti-migrant rhetoric used by some political leaders, is replaced with the empathy and respect that many people and communities across Britain show to refugees every day.

We can, and must do better : people’s lives depend on it.

The post Channel Tragedy: We Can and Must Do Better appeared first on Care4Calais.

Her husband, who was with her, told French reporters that the woman was trampled while in the boat. While unconscious, she was lifted out of the boat and dropped in the sea. Her husband leapt in after her, and brought her back to the beach. However emergency services were unable to revive her.

Another refugee who can come ashore was also treated.

Recently boats attempting to cross the Channel have been filled far beyond their capacity, with some veteran commentators suggesting the overcrowding has now reached levels previously unseen.

The overcrowding and increasingly dangerous risk taking is thought to be partly driven by refugee’s fear and uncertainty about EU and UK refugee policies.

This young woman’s agonising death on the Britain’s border follows the deaths of six Afghans in the Channel on August 12.

The suffering of this woman, and of her husband, is unimaginable.

For it to come on the same day that the UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman made a speech vilifying and demonising refugees makes it all the worse.

Let us not forget, this awful death of a young woman on a French beach in the early hours of an autumn morning was entirely preventable. A modern, sensible system of safe passage would have meant she didn’t have to get in the boat in the first place.

If Suella Braverman really wishes to reform refugee law for the better, she could begin there.

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