UK politicians have been promising to crack down on irregular migration for decades. In recent years, that has largely meant trying to stop the “small boats crisis” in the English Channel. They’ve thrown millions of pounds at the problem and made deal after deal with France, but people keep coming.
Some get caught, some get across, and some die in the process. According to the investigation we are now releasing in collaboration with the French outlet Les Jours, some 391 migrants have died on this border region in the past 25 years. It’s clear that no matter what the government does, people keep trying to get across.
So what’s going wrong? The answer lies in the deadly relationship between borders, irregular migration, and smuggling.
