THE government’s “smash the gangs” slogan and security-heavy approach is fuelling tragic and avoidable deaths in the Channel, campaigners warned on Sunday. 

Eight people died while trying to cross the Channel overnight on Sunday, less than a fortnight after 12 others lost their lives making the same journey.

Some 53 people were on board the boat, which got into difficulty off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France.

Survivors were taken to French border police, where they were asked questions for 12 hours, without access to food or water, Calais-based NGO Utopia 56 reported.

Six people were taken to hospital, including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, according to the prefect of Pas-de-Calais. 

Lachlan Macrae from Calais Food Collective noted that they had to cross further from Calais.

He said this had become more common due to the brutality of French authorities on the beach who have been reportedly stabbing boats. 

“People are pushed to go from further away and take more perilous and dangerous journeys as they have to cross further into the sea.

“Britain sends millions to the French authorities to enact these policies of no point of fixation, in which there are near-daily evictions of the informal living sites, and people’s belongings are stolen.”

Last year, the government pledged to spend £476 million over the next three years on Britain-France border controls.

Britain paid France £232m between 2014 and the end of 2023.

Mr Macrae said: “French riot police are sitting around endlessly everywhere. Just vans and vans of them.

“You see them sometimes vaping in the vans, going and getting chips, because they have nothing to do except for brutalise people when they have to do these evictions.”

Over 30 people have died making the perilous journey across the Channel so far this year.

While campaigners have reiterated the need for safe routes, the Labour government has echoed the Conservatives’ inhumane stance on migration since taking power.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to clamp down on those seeking safety by “smashing” smuggling gangs and making Britain’s shores “hostile territory.”

The government launched a Border Security Command to further militarise the country’s borders in July.

Amnesty International UK refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “The government’s ‘smash the gangs’ slogan and its security-heavy approach is contributing to the death toll because the refusal to establish safe asylum routes means these flimsy vessels controlled by people smugglers are the only real option for desperate people fleeing persecution.

“Until UK ministers and their counterparts in France start sharing responsibility over the need for safe routes, we should expect this weekend’s tragedy to keep repeating itself time and time again.”

Migrants Rights Network CEO Fizza Qureshi said: “Instead of creating ways for people to come to the UK safely, the new anti-migrant government is fixated on tightening borders. 

“We have already seen its commitment to continuing the trend of militarising borders, escalating racist surveillance and doubling down on cruel ‘deterrence’ measures that force people into making these exact dangerous crossings. 

“These inhumane policies are increasing the suffering of racialised people seeking safety or a new life.”

She called on the government to put “humanity first” and offer routes to safety. 

In an interview with the BBC, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the loss of life was “awful,” but remained insistent that the government is focusing on how to “go after” gangs “in co-operation upstream with other European partners.”

Today, Sir Keir is due to discuss migration with Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, whose neofascist Brothers of Italy party traces its origins to dictator Benito Mussolini.

Sir Keir has signalled interest in the country’s racist scheme, in which it can send asylum-seekers picked up by Italian ships to detention centres in Albania.

Some 23,241 people have been forced to make the dangerous journey over the Channel in 2024 so far. 

A spokesperson for Care4Calais said: “We are begging those in power to stop this avoidable anguish and be bold enough to introduce safe routes which will save lives.”