In Calais, those who help migrants often say that the French-British border kills. It could be said that over the years, it has done so in different ways. For a long time, migrants died when struck by cars on the fast lane leading to the ferry port, or by falling from the semi-trailers and vehicles they tried to hide in. Since 2018, more and more people have been drowning in the Dover Strait. And now, even before they reach the open sea, some are trampled to death by their fellow travelers in the overloaded rubber dinghies used to undertake the perilous crossing.

Sara Alhashimi was 7 years old; Dina was 21. Young Sara was suffocated on April 23 a few yards from the beach at Wimereux. In footage filmed on the night of the tragedy by the BBC, a group of around 100 people can be seen hurriedly boarding a dinghy, while law enforcement officers try to stop them with tear gas. The little girl can be seen riding on her father's shoulders, reaching the boat and then disappearing, never to be seen alive again. This was the fourth time her family had attempted the crossing. Four other people died of asphyxiation that day.

Dina died on a boat on the night of July 27-28, next to her two younger sisters, Nour and Fatima, her younger brother, Abdallah, and her parents. It was the family's fifth attempt to cross the channel. The mother, whom Le Monde met, remembered that Dina boarded the dinghy first, "happy" and eager to reach the goal. A group of men followed. "The smugglers had told us there would be 60 of us, but there were many more," said Amira Alshemmery.

'People fought'

The mass of piled-up bodies killed her eldest daughter in a few brief moments. "Her sister Nour was shouting 'My sister is going to die, save her! She's going to choke! Call for help!' Some said to do nothing, that we'd arrive soon. They threatened to throw her overboard. People on board fought. It went on for an hour until help arrived." Some migrants refused help and continued on to England, while others were disembarked in Wimereux, on the French coast, along with the lifeless body of the young girl from the Bidoon community, an undocumented stateless Arab minority in Kuwait.

More than 18,500 people have already managed to reach the United Kingdom since the start of the year, a rate which is close to that of 2022, when almost 46,000 people reached England. At the same time, 25 people have died at sea, more than in 2022 and 2023, years in which, respectively, 16 and six people lost their lives, according to the French maritime prefecture.

You have 73.68% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.