The following is a statement agreed by the ACG and the Union Communiste
Libertaire (UCL) in France. ---- The recent twenty-seven deaths of refugees inthe English Channel follow another ten deaths this year of desperate refugeesattempting to cross to the UK. There does not appear to be official figures forthe number of deaths in similar circumstances over the last twenty years, butlast October a figure of 296 was given of those attempting to cross by boat ortunnel. These latest figures raise the number of deaths to over 330, to saynothing of the thousands who have met their deaths in the Mediterranean. Ourthoughts are with the relatives and friends of those who have died.Both the British and French governments have attempted to place the blame forthese deaths on people traffickers. But it wasn't the traffickers who suppliedthe arms to vicious authoritarian regimes and who intervened in Iraq, Libya andAfghanistan, with bombings and occupations, destabilising the region, it was theWestern powers, and that includes France and Britain. In addition, the Frenchstate has carried out a war against the refugees, dismantling their camps andpulling down their tents in the middle of winter, running out rolls of barbedwire around a camp at Lille and along the railway tracks to Calais, rounding upmigrants, subjecting them to harassment, gassings, and strip searches. On the dayof the tragedy that resulted in the 27 deaths, the sub-prefect ofBoulogne-sur-Mer sent the police to stop the survivors being supplied with dryclothes.There have been 1,281 recorded attempts to cross the Channel since the beginningof the year, involving a total of 33,083 people, according to the French maritimeprefecture of the Channel and the North Sea. The British Home Office recognisesthat 25,792 refugees managed to reach Kent, and the Maritime Prefecture says thatit has brought back 8,200 during rescue operations.The refugees don't come to the West just to annoy people in Calais and in Kent.They are fleeing mass murders, bombings, oppressive regimes and political andreligious persecution. Many are Kurds who have been forced to flee from Iraq,Iran and Syria. They are not coming to the UK to "scrounge" as has been stated byPriti Patel and other Conservative MPs in parliament, but because there arealready existing migrant communities who can support them and provide work, oftenoff the record. Indeed, in early November, Patel stated that 70% of refugeeswere ‘economic migrants' and she has not substantiated this spurious allegation.Tory MPs like Edward Leigh and Julian Lewis have gloated in Parliament over thedeaths, saying that it would act as a lesson for those attempting to cross theChannel into Britain.Both the French and British governments have expressed hypocritical sympathy forthose who have died, Macron saying that he would not let the Channel become acemetery. His actions say otherwise. Meanwhile Boris Johnson allocated £54million last summer to stop crossings. Both are cynically using the crossings toexacerbate the tension between the British and French governments.It is precisely because of the militarised and heavily fortified crossing points,particularly at the entrances to the tunnel at Coquelles, that have forcedrefugees to take to sea, often on improvised rafts.Johnson came to power because of Brexit and one of the aims of Brexit was to endthe influx of migrants, especially from the Middle East. This is failingsignificantly, as around 25% of refugees manage to cross to Britain. In Francethere is the run-up to the presidential elections, and candidates are keen toshow how zealous they are to combat migration.The Johnson government has closed down any legal paths into the UK and ways ofsetting up safer routes, such as allowing asylum applications at Britishembassies, which it virulently opposes. The resettlement scheme he promised forthose fleeing from the Taliban in Afghanistan three months ago has still not beenimplemented, forcing many to take dangerous routes to escape. As for Priti Patel,the Home Office minister, she continues to blame the French government and herown legal advisers and officials for a failure to deliver on Brexit promises. Shehas raised the idea of a "push-back" policy, with the coastguard and the Navyforcing refugees back to France mid-Channel. No seafarer relishes condemninganyone to drowning, and even the staff union of Border Force, the frontiers lawenforcement agency, has rejected the "push-back". Other crazy schemes mooted havebeen the sub-contracting of processing asylum seekers to distant countries, forexample Albania. The Albanian government has dismissed this as "totally fake".For us, libertarian communists, the world is not divided between East and West,North and South, but between the classes, between those who rule and exploit andprofit, and those who work and produce the wealth, and are used as cannon fodderby the boss class. Solidarity between French and British workers and with themigrants. Don't let the nasty, sordid aim of restructuring capitalism on a globalscale by those who rule and exploit fool you. The workers of the world have nocountry. It is time to resurrect a class consciousness that does not recogniseborders and states. In the meantime, we must fight to stop any further deaths inthe Channel.https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2021/12/11/death-in-the-english-channel-acg-gb-and-ucl-france-statement/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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