Strict asylum rules and poor treatment of migrants are pushing people north to the UK

AMBLETEUSE, France (AP) — The rising tide rose 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 futile attempt to delay the inevitable: French police had just thwarted their last attempt to reach the UK of boat.

The men, women and children were once again stranded at the last frontier of their journey from Iraq It is Will. They hoped a rubber boat would take them to a better life with housing, schooling and work. Now it has disappeared over the horizon, with only a few passengers on board.

On the beach in the sleepy town of Ambleteuse in northern France, police begged migrants to leave the water at a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), so cold it can kill within minutes. Do it for the sake of the children, they argued.

“The boat is ready!” an increasingly angry officer shouted in French-accented English. “It’s over! It’s over!”

The asylum seekers eventually emerged from the sea in defeat, but there was no doubt that they would try to reach the UK again. They would not find the refuge they needed in France or anywhere else in the European Union.

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants were pushing them north. While the UK government has also been hostile, many migrants have family or friends in the UK and the perception that 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 covering 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 they land. This has overwhelmed countries on the edge of the 27-nation bloc, such as Italy, Greece and Spain.

Some migrants do not even try to make a new life in the EU. They are flying to France from as far away as Vietnam to try to cross the English Channel after failing to gain permission to enter the UK, which has stricter visa requirements.

“I’m not happy here,” said Adam, an Iraqi father of six who was among those caught on the beach one recent May morning. He declined to give his surname due to his uncertain legal status in France. He was unable to find education and housing for his children in France and was frustrated by the lack of answers from the asylum service about his case. He thought things would be better in the UK, he said.

Although the number of people entering the EU without authorization is nowhere near as high as during the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, far-right parties across Europe, including in France, explored migration to the continent and achieved major electoral victories in recent Elections to the European Parliament. His rhetoric and the treatment already faced by many people on the French coast and elsewhere in the bloc clash with the declared principles of solidarity, openness and respect for human dignity that underpin the democratic EU, human rights defenders note.

In recent months, the normally tranquil 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. The smugglers threw stones.

Although cross-Channel boat crossings represent only a small fraction of migration to the UK, France agreed last year to retain migrants in exchange for hundreds of millions of euros. It is an agreement similar to the agreements made between the European Union and North African nations in the last years. And although many people have been detained by the police, they are not offered alternative solutions and are forced to try to cross again.

Around 10,500 people arrived in England in small boats in the first five months of the year, around 37% more than in the same period last year, according to data published by the UK Home Office.

Intensified border surveillance is increasing risks and ultimately leading to more deaths, closer to the coast, said Salomé Bahri, coordinator of the non-governmental organization Utopia 56, which helps migrants stranded in France. At least 20 people have died so far this year trying to reach the UK, according to Utopia 56. That’s almost the same number of people who died in all of last year, according to statistics published by the International Organization for Migration.

People are running to avoid being caught by authorities and there are more deaths, Bahri said. At the end of April, five people died, including a 7-year-old girl who was crushed inside a rubber boat after more than 110 people boarded frantically trying to escape the police.

Authorities in northern France denied the AP’s request for an interview, but have already defended the police’s work to “save lives” and attributed the violence to smugglers who also attacked agents.

A seat on a flimsy rubber dinghy can cost between 1,000 and 2,000 euros (about $1,100 to $2,200), making it a lucrative business for smuggling networks led mainly by Iraqi Kurdish groups. They can earn up to 1 million dollars a month (approximately 920 thousand euros), 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 contemplated his limited options. The 25-year-old Sudanese was studying medicine in Moscow when civil war broke out in his home country. one year ago. He put his dream of becoming a doctor on hold. Forced to flee the fighting, his family was no longer able to pay his university fees and Osman was forced to leave Russia, where his visa only allowed him to study and not work. He crossed into Belarus and then Poland, where he says he was pushed back and beaten several times by Polish guards.

Finally, he managed to cross the border and reach Germany, where he tried to seek asylum, but was forced to return to Poland, in accordance with EU rules. All he wants now is to finish his medical studies in the United Kingdom, a country whose language he, like many other Sudanese, already speaks. The question, as always, is how to get there. Negotiations over potential deportation to Rwanda only added to the 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?”

In another makeshift camp near Dunkirk, which police routinely try to clear, more dreams were kept in suspense. Farzanee, 28, left Iran to follow her passion: becoming a professional bodybuilder. At home she was banned from competing and persecuted for her sport.

“I was even threatened with my family, so I left my country,” she said, refusing to give her surname out of fear for her safety and that of her loved ones.

Together with her husband, they managed to get a visa to France with a fake invitation letter. But even on EU soil they fear they could be deported back to Iran and believe that only the UK is safe. They tried – and failed – to board boats to the UK “seven or eight times”, but promised to keep trying until they succeeded.

“We and other Iranians like me have one thing in common,” explained Farzanee’s husband, Mohammad. “When you ask them, they will tell you: ‘free life or death’.”

A few days after this interview, Mohammad and his wife Farzanee arrived safely in the UK

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AP video journalist Ahmad Seir contributed to this report.

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