‘The UK cannot send me to Africa’: Migrants trying to cross Channel explain why they won’t be deterred by Rwanda bill

Published

2 months ago

April 23, 2024

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If you want to understand why people are still risking everything to cross the Channel, let me take you to a quiet street near Dunkirk, where chaos is in the air.

A group of around 40 or 50 people – migrants who have just failed in their latest attempt to cross the Channel – are being corralled down the road. They are tired and bruised. The police are around them, like teachers trying to take control of an unruly school trip.

Behind, police officers on foot, shouting instructions in French that almost nobody can understand. The group turns, as one, and heads down a side road that leads to a field.

“Non, non,” shouts the policeman, exasperated. His head rolls back. “NON,” he bellows, then runs after them.

These people are mostly strangers to each other, united by the single aim of reaching Britain. We had seen the group 12 hours earlier, crossing another field, clearly on their way to a nearby beach, but then they disappeared from our sight, heading off down an alleyway between houses.

Like so many people, they had attempted to make the crossing, and failed. This time, according to one of those we spoke to, the cause was the police, patrolling these beaches throughout the night.

As the group tried to take a boat to the shore, the police punctured it, rendering the vessel useless.

But that’s not all. They also claimed the police had used rubber bullets to disperse them.

Bich, a Vietnamese woman who we find sitting on the ground, tearfully exhausted, rolls up her trouser to expose a nasty, vivid bruise.

“We went towards the boat but the police shot at us. They destroyed the boat and it sank. And then they shot me.”

“Plastic pistols,” is how another man described the weapons, showing me a much bigger bruise on his thigh. A third has a circular bruise, with a dot in the middle, as if he has been hit by the top of a canister.

The group was a varied bunch. Very often, over the years of talking to migrant groups of northern France, they have been united by background – one boat is full of Iraqi Kurds, say, while another is packed with Afghans.

But here, we found an international group.

Yes, Kurds, Iraqis and Afghans, but also Syrians, Vietnamese, Sudanese and, hidden behind a cap and jumper pulled over his mouth and nose, a man who told me he was from Morocco.

Some have been determined to reach Britain ever since they left their home countries. Others are more pragmatic. One more told me he had wanted to stay in France but had just been told he was going to be deported.

“We have problems but we are being deported, so we want to go to Britain for a better life,” says one. “Deport, deport,” shouts another man.

So Britain may represent his last chance at asylum as a host of European nations start to increase the number of deportation orders they issue.

The European Union has just concluded a long-debated agreement on migration, intended to toughen both its borders and its resolve.

Sweden, France, Italy and plenty of others are using much tougher rhetoric about removing people from their territory who have been refused asylum. And the results are beginning to be seen.

Germany, which opened its doors to more than a million people fleeing Syria, is among those increasing its number of deportations, with 20% more migrants sent away in the first two months of this year compared with the same period of 2023.

And then, of course, there is the UK’s Rwanda plan, designed to deter people from making these crossings, backed by the prime minister’s unequivocal promise to bring down the number of small boats crossing the Channel.

If they knew about the Rwanda plan, and certainly some did, then they shrugged it off as either ineffective, unjust or simply untrue.

“The UK cannot send me to Africa after what you have done to my country and my area,” said one Syrian man. He knew about the Rwanda policy and said it was “not true”.

“It is not safe in Rwanda so you cannot send people there,” insisted another person, perhaps unwittingly getting to the nub of so many parliamentary exchanges.

“There are people who are trying to escape from Rwanda because of what is happening there. So you cannot say it is safe.”

There is a great deal stacked up against these groups of migrants. The British government doesn’t want them to come, they claim the police in the Dunkirk area have attacked them, the crossing is dangerous and expensive and there is a growing tide of antipathy towards migrants across much of Europe.

Yet none of these people seem deterred, promising to persevere, resolutely sure that reaching British shores will be a panacea to their woes.

“We will be back tomorrow,” says a young man with a wispy beard and a wide smile. “We want to get to the UK.”

His friend next to him simply grinned at me. “UK is good,” he said, with a thumbs-up.

The group amble off, back towards their camp near Grande-Synthe, a town that has become a magnet for migrants. They are exhausted and, in some cases, battered. But they will try again – soon.

Sky News has approached French police for comment on the migrants’ claims.

UK

Beaming Kate returns to royal events at Trooping the Colour – her first public appearance since cancer diagnosis

Published

7 hours ago

June 15, 2024

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Beaming Kate returns to royal events at Trooping the Colour - her first public appearance since cancer diagnosis

The Princess of Wales joined the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour flypast – after making her first public appearance since the announcement of her cancer diagnosis.

Kate, 42, wearing a pale outfit, was earlier pictured arriving at Buckingham Palace in a car sat alongside her children and her husband the Prince of Wales ahead of the event to celebrate the King’s official birthday.

The princess, who has been receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer since late February, and her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, were cheered by crowds along The Mall as they left the palace in a carriage for the ceremony.

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The future queen looked relaxed as she travelled along one of London’s most famous thoroughfares with her family in a carriage.

She could be seen smiling and talking to her children in the carriage before they arrived at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall.

William rode on horseback for the procession, alongside the Princess Royal, and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The King, who is also undergoing cancer treatment, rode in a carriage with the Queen, a departure from last year because of his illness, and inspected the officers and guardsmen from the coach rather than from a horse.

When the royal carriages finally came to a stop, Louis was the first to leave, followed by his elder brother George, and sister Charlotte.

Finally, Kate stepped down wearing a Jenny Packham dress, hat by Philip Treacy, and the Irish Guards Regimental Brooch, as she is the regiment’s colonel.

In another change from last year, Kate did not join senior family members on a dais, but watched the military spectacle – also known as the Birthday Parade – from a balcony in the Duke of Wellington’s former office with her children.

Prince Louis, six, at one point seemed to be distracted by a blind cord and was seen yawning while watching the parade before dancing along during the quick march of the Scots Guards to Highland Laddie.

Heavy rain began to fall as the royal procession made its way back to Buckingham Palace but the King and Queen, as well as Kate and her children, were protected from the downpour in their covered carriage.

Princess Charlotte, nine, smiled and waved enthusiastically to the crowds who braved the weather, while her brothers also smiled and waved to the sea of umbrellas along The Mall.

A 41-gun salute was then fired by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery in nearby Green Park before Kate and her family joined the King and Queen, as well as other royals, on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the RAF flypast.

They smiled and waved to the cheering crowds before standing proudly as the national anthem was played, with the flypast ending with the Red Arrows trailing their trademark red, white and blue colours.

Ahead of the event, Kate said: “I’m looking forward to attending the King’s Birthday Parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet.

“I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty.

“Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal.”

Her appearance was in doubt after she missed the final Trooping rehearsal last weekend.

This is Kate’s first official outing of 2024 after she missed engagements at the start of the year when she was admitted to hospital for abdominal treatment.

At the time her condition was thought to be non-cancerous, but tests after the successful operation found the disease, and Kate disclosed the diagnosis in March.

A time frame has not yet been set for Kate’s return to a full schedule of public engagements.

UK

General election: Voters annoyed at government’s broken promises, admits minister

Published

7 hours ago

June 15, 2024

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General election: Voters annoyed at government's broken promises, admits minister

People are “really annoyed” the government has not always kept its promises, a Tory minister has said as he acknowledged the election was “tough” after 14 years in power.

Speaking to Sky News Johnny Mercer admitted the campaign had been “up and down”, but insisted the polls showing the party lagging behind were not reflected on the doorstep.

He warned voters against giving Labour “unchecked power” by backing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, after a poll put his party one percentage point above the Conservatives.

It comes after a survey by YouGov for The Times put Reform UK at 19%, compared to the Conservatives at 18%.

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The veterans minister and former army officer, who is battling to be re-elected to the Devon seat of Plymouth Moor View, also disputed the findings of an IPSOS survey that indicated six in 10 people would accept higher taxes if it meant more money for the NHS.

He made his comments as Rishi Sunak remained away from the campaign trail for another day after attending the G7 summit in Italy.

The prime minister was also due to attend the Trooping the Colour ceremony to celebrate the official birthday of the King before jetting off again to attend a Ukraine Peace summit in Switzerland.

Mr Mercer told Sky News: “I’ve never found six out of ten people on the doors who want to pay more in tax in Plymouth.

“I respect all these surveys. I respect all the polls. There’s one poll that matters on 4 July.

“I don’t find six out of 10 people want to pay more tax. I find they want to bring their taxes down.

“They want better public services. They understand the challenge in the NHS.

“They also understand it’s got record funding and record numbers of doctors and nurses. But we’re up against a huge rise in demand, particularly under the pandemic, which is really, really difficult.”

He added: “Of course, people are annoyed. People are really annoyed that we’ve made promises and that we haven’t always met them.

“I think we’ve got a job of work to get over how hard the prime minister works on this, how difficult government is.

“But, no, I think people want to pay less tax. You have a clear choice in this election now, haven’t you.

“You have got the Conservatives clearly saying we’re going to reduce and continue to reduce tax… and a Labour government coming in, who is clearly going to raise taxes.”

Mr Mercer went on: “This election is tough, right? And it was always going to be tough after 14 years in power, and clearly the campaign’s been up and down as well.”

But insisting the Tories had a “bold plan”, he warned: “If you vote for Reform, you’re going to get a Labour government, you’ll get unchecked power from a Labour government to come in and change the face of this country into something that I don’t believe it is, I don’t think it is a left-wing country.”

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Mr Mercer rejected the Tory brand was “toxic” as he defended the absence of Conservative branding in his election literature.

He said: “Anyone looking at those leaflets can see that I’m in the Conservative Party and everybody has always known I’m in the Conservative Party.”

He added: “It’s blue… It’s got me on there talking about my record in government. So which part of it is not clear that I’m in the Conservative Party?

“I think it does say on the back who I’m campaigning for. “

Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall defended her party’s claim NHS waiting lists could rise to 10 million despite a thinktank saying it was “highly unlikely”.

Responding to the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ criticism, Ms Kendall told Sky News: “We’re saying that if there’s another five years of the Conservatives, you could see 10 million people waiting in pain or feeling they have to try and pay to go private to deal with their problem.”

She said it was a “reasonable assumption” that was based on what had already happened under the Conservatives and “if the trend continues in the future, as it has done in the past, that’s what we’re likely to see”.

The Tories have dismissed the Labour attack as “scaremongering”.

Elsewhere, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is on the campaign trail in Surrey as he continues his party’s efforts to chip away at the “blue wall”, a collection of typically safe Conservative seats in southern England.

Other candidates in Plymouth Moor View are:

Shaun Hooper, Reform UK
Sarah Martin, Liberal Democrat
Georgia Nelson, Greens
Fred Thomas, Labour

UK

Beaming Kate returns to royal events at Trooping the Colour – her first public appearance since cancer diagnosis

Published

10 hours ago