You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

At Least 6 Asylum Seekers Drown in Channel; 2 Off Tunisian Coast

HeadlineAug 14, 2023

Six asylum seekers have died after a boat carrying dozens of migrants to the U.K. sank in the English Channel. Several people are still missing, while 55 people were rescued in efforts largely led by French coastal authorities. The mayor of the port city of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, slammed British policy, which they say saddles France with handling the mounting crisis at the maritime border.

Mayor Natacha Bouchart: “We are systematically being fooled by the British government. When are we going to bang our fists on the table? When are we going to threaten them with action so that they can put an end to it? Calais is not the border of England. They don’t want to do the dirty work of saying 'I accept' or 'I do not accept refugees in my territory.'”

This comes as two refugees, including a baby, have died after another boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top