Number of shipwrecked migrants off Calais supported by state tripled in 2021

More than a thousand shipwrecked people were sheltered, compared with 341 in 2020, an increase of 194%, Monday announced the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII).

Le Monde with AFP

A thousand migrants have been rescued off Calais and cared for by the state in 2021, a record year of attempts of clandestine crossings of the Channel, announced, Monday, January 10, the French office of the French Immigration and integration (OFII). Their number has tripled in one year from 341 to 1 002 (an increase of 194%).

At the end of November, twenty-seven migrants who were trying to join the English ribs aboard a fortune craft found death in the most murderer shipwreck on this maritime road, aroused a wave of emotion as much that a renewed tension between London and Paris in the migratory file. Only two exile aspirants were rescued during this drama and are part of the thousand migrants taken over last year.

This support represents “a financial effort that continues to rise,” said the Director-General of OFII, Didier Leschi, while the crossings of the Channel by migrants also tripled in 2021, according to The figures obtained in early January by the British PA news agency at the British Ministry of the Interior. In 2021, more than 28,000 people tried to win the banks of England.

“Calais complex situation”

In addition, the number of people living in fortune camps on the North coast hoping to move to Great Britain, and who have been “sheltered and oriented in the national system of Home was 31,103 “last year, is up 239% from 2020 (9,172), according to OFII. Among these people, the share of those with family or “vulnerable” doubled from 1,158 to 2,273. In total, insists the OFII, 9,779 accommodation places were proposed in 2021, mainly in the highs. de-France (98%) and 6,950 people have been hosted.

Associations that help migrants in the region, they regularly accuse the authorities to carry out a deterrent on the coast: several activists had observed a hunger strike between October and mid-November 2020, to claim A moratorium on the quasi-daily dismantling of camps and denounce the “inhuman” treatment reserved for the exiles.

“Do not take into account the efforts of the State to take charge of the complex situation of Calais, it is involved in the hysterization of the debates on immigration,” rejected Mr Leschi, who has been conducting since October a mediation mission to Calais on behalf of the government.

/Media reports.