Rescue of suspected migrants off Kent raises fears of tragedy in Channel | UK news | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/30/rescue-of-suspected-migrants-raises-fears-of-tragedy-in-channel
The rescue of 20 people believed to be migrants off the coast of Kent has sparked fears that tragedies seen in Greece or Italy will start to occur in the Channel.
The group, which consisted of 18 Albanians and two Britons, were still being questioned by Border Force officers in Dover on Monday after being rescued from the Channel when their inflatable boat began to sink.
But the president of the French coastguard, Bernard Barron, said on Sunday that he feared the Channel could become the scene of drownings such as those witnessed in the Mediterranean as migrants and refugees continue to travel to north-western Europe.
“It’s starting to become a very similar situation to that seen in the Mediterranean and my biggest fear is that the same kind of tragedies we see in Greece or Italy will start to repeat in the Channel.”
He added that smugglers had found a new way of bringing people into the country after it had become “virtually impossible” for them to enter via the Channel tunnel or on ferries.