Calm sea
Over the past week the weather has sometimes been sunny, and sometimes dull and cloudy, but it has been predominantly calm with little wind.
It seems that criminal gangs in France have taken advantage of the calm seas to make money out of refugees by providing them with small dinghies to cross the busy shipping lanes between France and England here where the Channel is at its most narrow point. Forty migrants, including two children, were rescued from boats in five separate incidents on Christmas Day alone in this part of the English Channel. More are crossing every day it seems. The British Home Office said some of the migrants identified themselves as Iraqis, Iranians and Afghans.
In at least one incident a rowing boat was used. The small dinghies are invariably overloaded and the occupants frequently lack life jackets. If it were not for the calm weather some of these small boats would have come to grief with inevitable loss of life. The chances they are taking, especially with young children, reflects their desperation to get here.
Calm sea
Over the past week the weather has sometimes been sunny, and sometimes dull and cloudy, but it has been predominantly calm with little wind.
It seems that criminal gangs in France have taken advantage of the calm seas to make money out of refugees by providing them with small dinghies to cross the busy shipping lanes between France and England here where the Channel is at its most narrow point. Forty migrants, including two children, were rescued from boats in five separate incidents on Christmas Day alone in this part of the English Channel. More are crossing every day it seems. The British Home Office said some of the migrants identified themselves as Iraqis, Iranians and Afghans.
In at least one incident a rowing boat was used. The small dinghies are invariably overloaded and the occupants frequently lack life jackets. If it were not for the calm weather some of these small boats would have come to grief with inevitable loss of life. The chances they are taking, especially with young children, reflects their desperation to get here.