When migrants reach the English Channel and set off on flimsy boats that cost six more lives last weekend, many have travelled thousands of kilometres from Asia and Africa to reach northern Europe.
Yet despite the harrowing human toll and intense political pressure to “stop the boats” from reaching Britain, nobody along the migration route has been able to cut them off.
The UK government has searched high and low for ways to “stop people coming here in the first place”, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described his task on Tuesday.
As Mr Sunak stakes his career on solving the crisis:
- Efforts to deter migrants by housing them on barges and deporting them to Rwanda have been plagued by setbacks, and are unlikely to bring the same results as an Australian crackdown admired by UK ministers, experts said
- Britain is paying for police patrols in France but there is a “strong feeling that the French aren’t doing their best”, former UK minister David Jones told The National
- European countries have tried shoring up their borders and using neighbours such as Tunisia and Turkey as gatekeepers but analysts said there was no point in Britain “simply imagining they should deal with the problem”
- Proposals for the UK to accept more legal migrants, work more closely with the EU or spend more money on tackling causes of migration in countries such as Afghanistan are a hard sell for parts of Mr Sunak’s party.
So, what else can be done? The National spoke to experts to find out.
In countries of origin
Migrants’ home nations are experiencing a “brain drain” of people who "will be better placed to build up their own countries”, argued Alan Mendoza, director of the UK’s Henry Jackson Institute.
He said one option was to “look more towards supporting development in the original host countries”.
Rob McNeil, deputy director of the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, said the UK needed to “address the big picture” and not “simply on the challenge we see on the south coast”.
The UK should "consider what factors are driving the migration of desperate people – despotic regimes, persecution, economic inequality, war and a lack of opportunities for people and their families", he said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose country is among the most exposed to Mediterranean people trafficking, has pursued alliances with African countries to “stop illegal migration upstream”.
The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) is trying to entice Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan by building homes, schools and health clinics. But many are reluctant to return home because of the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls, said Leonard Zulu, UNHCR’s senior representative in Kabul.
Long-term development assistance to relieve poverty in Afghanistan “is not on the table at the moment because of the human rights challenges that we have”, Mr Zulu said. The UK has cut its overseas aid budget to save money.
In Europe
Mr McNeil said closer UK co-operation was needed not only with France but with other European countries through which migrants travel.
“Simply imagining that they should deal with the problem, so we don't have to, rather misses the point – they already are," he said.
EU members recently struck a deal to reject people from the visa-free Schengen zone if their nationality means they have little hope of asylum.
People who reach the Channel must have made it into Schengen first, so the deal could limit numbers because “there might just be fewer people who make it to Italy, then make it to France, then make it to the UK”, said Camille Le Coz, an associate director of the Migration Policy Institute.
However, the deal could still founder over the redistribution of migrants. Poland has called a referendum on the loaded question of whether voters want “thousands of illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa”.
The EU has held talks with potential non-EU gatekeepers such as Tunisia. The UK offered to help Turkey break up smuggling networks.
Their support tends to come at a price. “It’s a discussion about development assistance, but also political support, the EU not criticising the regime when they take a more authoritarian turn,” said Ms Le Coz.
Prof Andi Hoxhaj, a researcher on migration at University College London, said the rate at which Europe looks for new agreements highlights the difficulties with them.
An EU deal with Morocco “must not be working because otherwise they would not be exploring a new deal with Tunisia”, he said.
In France
Britain pays France to patrol its northern beaches but not everyone is happy with the results.
“There's a strong suspicion that they are not particularly helpful and there's a strong feeling that the French aren't doing their best,” said Mr Jones, a Conservative MP and former Welsh secretary.
Mr Hoxhaj said: "If you speak with the French authorities, they do not see it as a problem ... most migrants just use France as a transit route. They do not stay long.”
A French opposition MP for Calais also called for authorities to go further by banning illegal migrants from a 50-kilometre exclusion zone near the coast.
France is expected to unveil an immigration overhaul soon that could offer work to some unregistered migrants, while also speeding up deportations.
“If your asylum claim was to be processed more quickly, maybe it would convince more people to claim for asylum in France,” said Ms Le Coz. “If it was also easier to access legal status, work in France, maybe that would also convince more people.
But “if this person speaks English, has relatives in the UK, they might still try to go the UK".
In the UK
If all of the above fails, the UK will continue to be faced with thousands of people a year willing to risk their lives in the Channel. Another 111 people made the crossing on Monday, only two days after the fatal boat wreck.
Ministers are hoping a tough new asylum law, along with the stalled Rwanda policy, will deter people. The plan to house people on a barge hit a snag when 39 were evacuated in a legionella scare.
An Australian policy of handling asylum claims offshore is credited by the UK with stopping boat arrivals, but Mr McNeil said the Rwanda plan was “unlikely to achieve this on its own”.
“Australia's offshore processing was part of a bigger suite of policy actions, some of which have been seen as breaching international law, including turn-backs of boats,” he said.
Tony Smith, a former Border Force chief, said ministers “have put a lot of store on Australia, because they did stop the boats and said if Australia did it then we can do it" – but he added “the conditions are completely different down there".
“They have loads of sea between Australia and Asia and when you’re in international waters as opposed to territorial waters, different rules apply. And the Indonesians allowed the Australians to tow boats there."
Mr Smith said deportations from the UK had "gone through the floor" and suggested that "if we can get returns going again, people will see that on TikTok and that will have a powerful deterrent effect".
Then there are calls to open more safe routes for refugees. While Mr McNeil called them a "simplistic perspective", Mr Smith said a post-Brexit agreement with the EU might be a long-term answer.
He said it could involve returning Channel migrants to France in exchange for taking in legal refugees "two or three times that number" – a potentially tough sell.
“That’s what the political dilemma is going to be, for this lot or the next government,” Mr Smith said.
“It might be we say to the EU ‘we take 120,000 a year from the EU and in return, you take them back if they come on a boat'.”
100,000 migrants cross the Channel in five years - in pictures
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The five pillars of Islam
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Read more about the coronavirus
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Results
5pm: Warsan Lake – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 2,200m; Winner: Dhaw Al Reef, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Al Quadra Lake – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Mrouwah Al Gharbia, Sando Paiva, Abubakar Daud
6pm: Hatta Lake – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: AF Yatroq, George Buckell, Ernst Oertel
6.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Ashton Tourettes, Adries de Vries, Ibrahim Aseel
7pm: Abu Dhabi Championship – Listed (PA) Dh180,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Bahar Muscat, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Zakher Lake – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Alfareeq, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi.
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
THE SPECS
Engine: 4.0L twin-turbo V8
Gearbox: eight-speed automatic
Power: 571hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,000-4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 11.4L/100km
Price, base: from Dh571,000
On sale: this week
Saturday's schedule at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 race, 12:30pm
Formula 1 final practice, 2pm
Formula 1 qualifying, 5pm
Formula 2 race, 6:40pm
Performance: Sam Smith
ELECTION%20RESULTS
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Du Football Champions
The fourth season of du Football Champions was launched at Gitex on Wednesday alongside the Middle East’s first sports-tech scouting platform.“du Talents”, which enables aspiring footballers to upload their profiles and highlights reels and communicate directly with coaches, is designed to extend the reach of the programme, which has already attracted more than 21,500 players in its first three years.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The years Ramadan fell in May
The five pillars of Islam
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Results:
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m | Winner: AF Al Montaqem, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,200m | Winner: Daber W’Rsan, Connor Beasley, Jaci Wickham
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m | Winner: Bainoona, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m | Winner: AF Makerah, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 | Winner: AF Motaghatres, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh90,000 1,600m | Winner: Tafakhor, Ronan Whelan, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
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Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
