UK: Channel crossings by boat increased last year due to lack of safe routes available

In response to the latest immigration statistics released by the Home Office today and Channel crossings topping over 28,500 last year, Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said:

“It’s been chilling to see ministers coldly blaming desperate people simply for trying to reach safety.

“With there currently being no safe means of reaching the UK, those fleeing war and persecution have had no choice but to attempt these perilous crossings​ even though many people have died.

“In global terms, the UK receives and provides safety to comparatively few refugees, yet the Home Secretary and her officials have tried to give the entirely false impression that the Channel crossings are some sort of national emergency.

“Instead of plans to criminalise people for seeking safety, the Government should be opening up safer routes for those seeking asylum - not raising the drawbridge and driving vulnerable people further into the hands of people-smugglers.”