What the Prime Minister gets wrong about small boat crossings
MSF UK responds to the Prime Minister’s comments on small boat crossings
This week the UK Prime Minister said that “you have every right to be angry about small boat crossings”. He's right - you should be angry.
We're angry too. We're angry because despite a change in UK government, the harmful and hostile rhetoric remains the same.
In 2016, the Prime Minister spoke of the appalling conditions he witnessed in camps in Northern France and the need for routes for children here to join family in the UK. The then Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, advocated for a humanitarian approach to small boat crossings and spoke of the UK’s moral responsibility to refugees.
Now in positions of power, the humanity, compassion and common-sense approach to open safe routes has been replaced with a focus on deterrence, increased securitisation of the border, and the criminalisation of people seeking safety.
Meanwhile, the situation in Calais remains dire. Between December 2024 and January this year, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams provided emergency accommodation to more than 200 people in Calais, including around 60 families, more than 80 children, over 70 unaccompanied minors, and pregnant women. They would have otherwise been forced to sleep outside in harsh winter conditions.
Those who do manage to arrive in the UK via their own means face hostile policies that cause immense suffering and harm. In 2024, MSF and Doctors of the World UK ran a mobile clinic outside Wethersfield mass containment site.
Everyone who accessed our service had crossed the Channel by small boat and many spoke of the impact the site was having on their mental health. Sixty-two percent of patients presented with severe mental distress and 30 percent reported suicidal ideation.
Read our report on Wethersfield
We agree that no one should be making dangerous and sometimes fatal journeys across the Channel. What the Prime Minister fails to acknowledge, is that the many people forced to do so this week is a result of the lack of safe routes to the UK for people fleeing persecution.
The very smugglers the government seek to smash, would be out of business with the introduction of safe routes to the UK.
MSF, refugees and displaced people
An unprecedented 108.4 million people around the world have been forced from their homes, according to UNHCR.
The reasons vary, but violence and conflict; natural disasters; or extreme weather events can all mean that it is no longer safe to stay where you are.
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has a long history assisting people who have been displaced by humanitarian crises – it is at the heart of what we do.