The Sudanese young man who drowned trying to paddle a ‘toy blow-up boat’ to England with a shovel as an oar was following a dream shared by hundreds of African boys living in Calais.
They believe the fantasy peddled by cruel human-trafficking gangs that the UK will offer everyone a sanctuary from poverty and war.
Last week, close to the site of the drowning in the early hours of yesterday, I spoke to a group of Sudanese youngsters hoping to make the 21 miles from northern France to Kent.
Two sat on a wall at Bleriot beach pointing to the ferries ploughing between Calais and Dover.
A third, Yahya Idriss, riding a bicycle donated by a charity and wearing a blue baseball cap, joined us to explain how desperate they were to leave France.
Sue Reid writes that when she met 16-year-old Sudanese migrant Yahya Idriss he had just one word on his lips: ‘England’
The 16-year-old told me in stilted English: ‘I want boat to your country. I wait in France for a month to go on the sea.’
If Yahya’s English was poor, his French was worse. Earlier, when I asked him to write his name on my notepad, it took him ten minutes to remember the letters. He struggled even to hold a pen. When I gave him 20 euros to buy some food, he smiled politely and said ‘Thank you’.
I warned him that it was dangerous out on the water. He simply laughed before heading down to the beach and vanishing among the sunbathers.
I thought yesterday of Yahya who came from the same corrupt, wartorn nation as the as yet unnamed drowning victim, described by French officials as 16.
It is not a stretch of the imagination to think they might have known each other, even travelled together, sharing hopes of a new life in Britain.
Migrants sitting on Plage de la Rotonde in Calais as they watch ferries ply the 21 miles between the French city and Kent. A ‘hostile’ environment is encouraging more to make the crossing
Later that day, I spotted Yahya again – still wearing that distinctive cap. I waved from my car to him as he was cycling along a road leading from the centre of the port town to the shoreline. Was he returning for a second look at ways he could reach the UK? He stopped his bike and waved back with another wide smile.
Earlier this week, on these pages, I warned of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Calais. And the drowning of a young migrant, who apparently could not swim and whose spade used as an oar may even have punctured his flimsy craft, is surely symptomatic of that crisis.
The French want migrants such as Yahya out of their hair. Out of France.
They want to see Calais transformed back into a tourist resort and this summer have created what migrant charities call a ‘hostile environment’ toward the unwelcome foreign faces thronging there.
The semi-official migrant camps are empty and locked up, surrounded by wire fences, guarded by police who patrol in large vans.
Migrants smile and wave as they are brought into Dover by the UK Border Force
But there is little chance the migrants will disappear. Hundreds of youngsters from all over Africa, from Iran, Iraq, are now sleeping in shanty camps, under bushes, even in ditches around the port.
Every successful crossing – and there are numerous ones each day – fuels the desire to get to the UK.
British politicians, who are only too aware that immigration control was high on the agenda at the last election, insist we cannot be the only country to take in these migrants. France, and the rest of Europe, must care for their share too.
The political ding-dong between Paris and London is never-ending and – as the number of UK arrivals reaches the thousands – so the row gets bigger.
The desperation of those who wait to make this journey is huge. They will ride on any boat whether it is organised by a trafficker at £3,000 a head or is a £200 inflatable bought from a Calais supermarket.
On a previous visit to the port I interviewed a migrant in his early twenties from Chad. He had left his country as a member of the national swimming team due to compete in an international competition in Barcelona. When he reached Europe he told me he left the team and headed to Calais, planning to get to Britain. I checked out his incredible story to see if it was untrue. He was indeed described as an official competitor who was a ‘no-show’ at the swimming competition.
The unnamed boy, who carried identity documents suggesting he was aged over 18, washed up on a French beach today after his makeshift raft upturned just minutes after he set out for the UK from Calais at 1.09am. Pictured, men use shovels as oars off the coast of France
A Christian, he told me he had been persecuted in Chad because of his religion. He was hoping to swim to Dover and when I asked him what his swimming stroke was, he replied ‘the butterfly’. I warned him against ever attempting the perilous journey. This was not long after a Syrian toddler drowned in the Mediterranean off Turkey five years ago.
Three-year-old Alan Kurdi was on board a migrant boat with his father, heading to Greece from where they hoped to reach England. A photograph of his tiny body, in T-shirt and shorts, washed up on a beach was a shocking image that woke the world up to the Syrian refugee crisis and helped changed Europe’s attitude towards migrants. Will the drowning of a teenager off Calais be just such a moment too? Certainly it will put added pressure on Britain to open its doors to the throngs waiting in France with no questions asked whether they are would-be terrorists, criminals or returning British jihadi – as some surely are. For what better way to slip into the UK than on a boat at dead of night?
The blame game has already begun. Home Secretary Priti Patel said that the trafficking gangs exploiting desperate people – promising that anyone who gets on a boat to sail illegally from France will reach the UK safely – played a part in the drowning. She is right.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds retorted that the Government was ‘lacking in compassion and competence’ over this summer’s migration wave from France.
One thing is certain. A young man with his life ahead of him died on a beach off Calais yesterday. The French authorities said that traffickers may have helped him and his friend, who was pulled from the sea and survived, obtain the dangerously unseaworthy craft in exchange for just a few euros.
Today, hundreds of teenagers and young men from faraway lands wait on the French coast prepared to take the same risks.
When they reach Britain, as many will, they will soon be replaced by other young migrants from around Europe with the same plan.
Like 16-year-old Yahya whom I met on the beach, they have only one word on their lips: ‘England’.
And until that mind-set is changed – and the traffickers who ply their miserable trade in humans are sent packing from France – there will be other heart breaking tragedies on Calais beaches.