Death of six children and pregnant woman in migrant boat tragedy shows need for asylum safe routes

Experts have called for “compassion” as it was reported that 12 people, including a pregnant woman and at least six children, died after a migrant boat carrying dozens of asylum seekers sank in the English Channel. 

More than 50 people were rescued near Boulogne-sur-Mer in France on Tuesday (3 September), officials say, with two said to be in critical condition. Officials added that the boat was overloaded and that its bottom “ripped open”. Ten females and two males were among the dead making it one of the deadliest losses of life in the Channel this year.

Refugee charities have called for a more “compassionate” asylum system in the UK in the wake of the tragedy, claiming that deterring people from travelling the Channel in small boats “doesn’t work”. 

“We are all absolutely devastated by this news, and it’s especially devastating because these kinds of deaths are avoidable,” Natasha Tsangarides, associate director of advocacy at the charity Freedom from Torture, told the Big Issue.

“Nobody gets in a boat unless they feel that they have no alternative, and unfortunately, in the absence of safe routes, people feel forced to continue to risk their lives and take a small boat across the Channel.”

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Tsangarides advocated for changes to be made in the asylum system, warning the government that “criminalising people who are fleeing persecution and shutting down their routes to safety only forces people into more dangerous situations”. 

“Looking at government statistics, most people crossing the Channel – when they have their claims determined by the government – are found to be in need of protection because they have fled awful circumstances,” she explained. 

“We need the government to understand that deterrence doesn’t work. What deterrence does is it drives people to make increasingly more dangerous journeys,” she said. 

“What needs to happen is that we need a compassionate system for people seeking safety in this country, and we need the political discourse to change and to be one that champions the rule of law and protection of people in need. 

“Most people want a system that is fair and compassionate to people seeking safety, and that’s what we hope the government will deliver on.”

UK asylum system ‘in disarray’

Tsangarides explained that the current government “has inherited an asylum system in disarray”, and that Labour needs to “rebuild an asylum system that is compassionate, fair and efficient, and treats all people with dignity”, shifting away from “hostile rhetoric”. 

“There are over 100,000 people stuck in limbo, unable to continue with their lives and heal and recover because asylum decision-making ground to an almost halt for a very long period of time,” she said. 

“The topic of refugees and Channel crossings has become horribly politicised, and this politicisation of refugees has detracted from the fact that these are real people who have human stories and have very often been through absolute horrors and are coming to the UK In search of safety.”

According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, 30 people had died crossing the Channel in 2024 before the deaths on Tuesday, already the highest figure for any year since 2021, when 45 deaths were recorded. 

Home secretary Yvette Cooper described the deaths in the migrant boat tragedy as “horrifying and deeply tragic”. 

“The gangs behind this appalling and callous trade in human lives have been cramming more and more people on to increasingly unseaworthy dinghies, and sending them out into the Channel even in very poor weather,” she said.

The effort to “dismantle these dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs and to strengthen border security is so vital and must proceed apace,” she added.

Prime minister Keir Starmer has previously promised to “smash” people-smuggling gangs, with the government claiming it has recruited more officers to the National Crime Agency and set up the Border Security Command in order to target criminal gangs. 

Charities and experts, however, have claimed that targeting people-smuggling gangs alone will not tackle the issue, instead calling for safer routes to the UK to be established. 

Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, said: “All of us, particularly our team in Calais, are devastated by this latest tragedy. One life lost in the Channel is too much, but this year these tragedies have occurred with much more frequency and that is a deeply worrying trend that needs to be stopped.”

Smith added: “Every political leader, on both sides of our Channel, needs to be asked how many lives will be lost before they end these avoidable tragedies? 

“Their continued obsession, and investment, in security measures is not reducing crossings, it is simply pushing people to take ever increasing risks to do so.

“Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is political lunacy. It’s time politicians were held accountable for their choice to dehumanise people seeking sanctuary from horrors back home. It’s time they ended these tragedies and introduced safe routes.”

Tsangarides added: “Smashing the gangs and enforcement alone will not work, because at the end of the day, people continue to take awful journeys and increasingly greater risks in the absence of safe routes. 

“While it is absolutely shameful and abhorrent that criminals are profiting from people’s misery and smuggling people across dangerous journeys, that will continue unless the people who are fleeing have an alternative.”

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