The Forgotten of Calais

A Fate on the Edge of Europe.

At Calais, on the border between France and the United Kingdom, a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding that rarely makes the headlines. While the world focuses on wars, economic crises, and political scandals, thousands of people endure precarious conditions—hidden from European public view but all too real for those living in makeshift camps in the mud, harassed by police, and exploited by smugglers. The French-British border remains one of the most dangerous places for refugees hoping for a better future. But for many, that dream ends in death.

In 2024 alone, at least 77 people lost their lives on the journey to the United Kingdom—the highest number since records began.

The year 2025 also began with tragic fatalities. On January 11, a young Syrian man died when an overcrowded rubber dinghy began to leak. He was crushed in the chaos as panicked people tried to reach the shore. A month later, on February 15, a boat sank off the coast of Calais. Sixty-nine people were rescued, but one of them did not survive, despite all resuscitation attempts. These tragedies are not isolated incidents. Since the so-called "small boat crossings" began in 2018, more than 150,000 people have crossed the English Channel to the United Kingdom. Many of them never reached their destination.

The situation on the French coast is especially life-threatening in winter. The English Channel is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, the weather conditions are often harsh, and the boats used by refugees are usually overcrowded and barely seaworthy. Only a few wear life jackets. French authorities regularly warn of the risks, but despair drives people onto the water.

Meanwhile, the British government relies on deterrence. Instead of creating safe and legal migration pathways, restrictive measures are passed, aimed solely at keeping refugees out.

In Calais itself, conditions resemble the former "Jungle" camp, which was cleared in 2016. Informal camps constantly form, often little more than a few tents and makeshift shelters. The French authorities maintain a hard line: every two days, the camps are destroyed—in Dunkirk, once a week.

This is called "Eviction Day"—a day when police in full gear arrive with bulldozers and dump trucks to destroy the few belongings of the people. The camps exist only briefly, but the refugees do not disappear. They wander, setting up their makeshift camps elsewhere until they are evicted again. It is a cycle of cruelty that systematically erases any trace of hope.

Those who do not flee by boat risk their lives in other ways. Some try to hide in trucks to pass through the Eurotunnel to the United Kingdom. Others even attempt to swim. On February 10, two bodies were recovered—people who lost their lives in the icy waters as they tried to reach a boat. Those who make it onto the ships are not safe. Recently, a boat was rescued by the French navy—70 people on board, only half of whom wore life jackets. Two people were pulled unconscious from the water; one was resuscitated, the other died in the hospital.

Those who endure in the camps fight for the bare essentials every day. Aid organizations like Utopia 56 and Care4Calais try to prevent the worst. They provide people with drinking water, distribute food and clothing, and organize makeshift sanitary facilities. But it is a drop in the ocean.

There are hardly any permanent structures, and even these modest relief efforts are repeatedly destroyed by police evictions.

Why do so many people take all these risks? For many, the United Kingdom is their last hope. Some already speak English, others have family or acquaintances there. Another peculiarity: in the United Kingdom, there is no mandatory identification requirement, which means that it is easier for people without documents to get by. Furthermore, after Brexit, the Dublin Agreement no longer applies. Those who have already had an asylum application rejected in another EU state can file a new one in the United Kingdom.

Politics responds to this with severity instead of solutions. The British government speaks of "Operation Smash"—an initiative supposedly aimed at destroying the smugglers' business model.

But in reality, this policy is primarily aimed at deterring refugees and driving them further into misery. At the same time, British politicians shift responsibility to France, while France, in turn, blames the United Kingdom for the misery. A back-and-forth while people in the camps continue to freeze, starve, and die.

Activists helping in Calais speak of the "Forgotten of Europe." These are the people who have no place in the news, whose fate is not discussed in political talk shows. People who do not make headlines unless they die. The situation in Calais is no accident and no natural disaster. It is the result of a political strategy that sacrifices the protection of human lives for deterrence.

The question is not how long this tragedy will continue. The question is how long we can keep looking away before we admit that we have long become part of this system of cruelty.