Boat migrants Border policy linked to rise in deaths

Efforts to stop asylum seekers from crossing the Channel in small boats have led to a rise in violence, deaths and smuggler control, but have not deterred arrivals, a report warns.

- Diane Taylor

The report, from Humans For Rights Network, includes contributions from 17 refugee and human rights organisations operating in northern France and six in the UK.

It contains details of violent operations targeting transport networks as well as evictions of sites where people are living and the deaths of migrants who smuggle themselves on to refrigerated lorries. It also details the use of rubber bullets and tear gas by French police, who have been given hundreds of millions of pounds by the UK to secure the UK border.