Baby Without Life Jacket on Overcrowded Boat
Photographer captures harrowing scenes of boarding at Camiers as gendarmes threaten him, not the smugglers. Meanwhile, rescuers warn of a record 230 migrants on a single vessel.
Photographer captures harrowing scenes of boarding at Camiers as gendarmes threaten him, not the smugglers. Meanwhile, rescuers warn of a record 230 migrants on a single vessel.
A photograph of a baby just a few months old, too small to wear a life jacket, being loaded onto an overcrowded migrant boat has gone viral and sparked outrage. Yet, even more attention has been drawn to the reaction of French authorities, who, according to the photographer's testimony, watched the entire event from a nearby beach without taking any action to prevent it.
The incident occurred on the beach at Camiers in northern France. Photographer Ioannis Alexopoulos captured a group of migrants emerging from the sand dunes and entering the sea to swim to a waiting boat. Among them were very young children, including a baby who couldn't even wear a safety vest.
Three gendarmes soon arrived at the scene, but according to Alexopoulos, they made no attempt to stop the boarding. "Three police officers arrived, gendarmes in military uniforms, but all they did was film and threaten to arrest me if I continued taking photos," the photographer told The Sun. The boat was followed by French police for nearly nine and a half hours as it picked up more passengers along the coast before heading towards the UK.
Just a day earlier, on the night of Sunday to Monday, August 9, an unprecedented event occurred in the English Channel. As many as 230 migrants crossed the strait on a single vessel, a record number. Jean-Marc Lamblin, commander of sea rescuers from Berck-sur-Mer (Sauveteurs en mer), witnessed the scene.
"The first shock is being unable to count the number of people in the water because they were coming from everywhere," Lamblin told France Info. He described how shortly after 5 p.m., a huge zodiac passed along the coast with several dozen migrants, then 150, even 200 people emerged from the dunes and swam towards it. "The entire front was bending, and huge amounts of water were entering the vessel," he added, describing the terrifying conditions on the overcrowded boat that took six hours to reach English waters.
"We saw, three weeks or a month ago, 150 or 170 people. We told ourselves we were at the limit of what we could save. And now 230. It's the general shock of all sea rescue actors involved in this crisis."
As summer and favorable weather conditions continue, the British government fears further escalation. Although this year has seen a 43 percent drop in small boat crossings compared to the same period last year, with 14,561 people arriving by early August, officials are not complacent. The UK Home Office claims that new measures "are beginning to deliver results," but admits they are not satisfied.
Duncan Capps, the new commander of the UK's Border Security Command, warned that the situation could quickly reverse. "Recent data is positive. But that can change quickly," he said. "We have gradually put organized crime groups at a disadvantage. But we must be prepared for them to adapt their tactics to protect their profits." His words carry weight precisely because of the emergence of larger and more overcrowded boats that pose a huge risk to human life.
