More than 150 people have died crossing the English Channel in the last five years according to recorded data but charities warn the true numbers could be far higher.
The number of desperate people who died trying to make it to the UK in 2021 makes up more than 25 per cent of all migrant deaths since records began.
People crossing the English Channel in boats or in the back of lorries surged this year, with over 23,000 making the treacherous crossing so far, according to the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) Missing Migrants Project.
The organisation warned that figures must be considered to be a low count of the true number of missing migrants, due to the challenges of collecting data as well as the large number of invisibleshipwrecks that happen without witness or record.
It comes as efforts continue to identify the 27 people whose lives were lost in the Channel on Wednesday in one of the darkest days of the migrant crisis. A source at the French prosecutors office told i they included three children, seven women and 17 men. One of the women is understood to have been pregnant.
IOM confirmed the tragedy was the largest loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014.
What makes people cross the Channel are there are no other routes to get here to claim asylum. You must be on UK soil to claim asylum here, a Refugee Action spokesman told i.
When there is no other option, people put their lives in the hands of criminal gangs and step into flimsy boats and hope for the best.
Of those who cross the Channel, 98 per cent claim asylum, according to Refugee Council.
Charities have condemned the Government for not ensuring there are safer routes for people seeking asylum that dont see people forced to put their lives and the lives of their families in danger.
Minnie Rahman, interim chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told i: What happened yesterday was a devastating but avoidable tragedy. At least 27 people with hopes, dreams, families and futures died in a cold stretch of sea because this government has been playing politics with peoples lives.
She argued that over the course of the pandemic many safe routes to people seeking asylum have been closed down, leaving no way for people to get to the UK safely.
The Government has repeatedly prioritised, cruel, unworkable and dangerous border measures like pushbacks in the Channel, which will only lead to more deaths, she said.
Experts have also pointed out that while applications for asylum have increased, the number of people resettled has dramatically fallen from the year before.
The number of people granted protection through resettlement schemes has fallen by 46 per cent in the year ending September 2021 and now stands at just over 1,000, said Marley Morris, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) associate director.
The figures also show an overall 18 per cent year-on-year increase in asylum applications, but with total numbers still far lower than the peak in the early 2000s. Moreover, the number of asylum applications with an initial decision pending has continued to rise, in part as a result of extensive delays in asylum processing.
He added the number of asylum applications still pending an initial decision stands at around 68,000, with around two thirds taking more than six months to process.
The Refugee Council is calling on the Government to:
Meanwhile in Calais, a makeshift graveyard has been set up to remember each of the refugees who have died trying to reach Europe. One of the wooden crosses has been placed for newborn Samir Khalida, who was killed when her mother, who left Eritrea for a better life in Europe, fell from a truck, triggering her premature birth.
The graveyard is expected to grow as more and more people attempt to come to the UK over the coming months.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said Wednesdays tragedy serves as the starkest possible reminder of the dangers of these Channel crossings organised by ruthless criminal gangs.
She said the Governments new plan for immigration will overhaul our broken asylum system and address many of the long-standing pull factors encouraging migrants to make the perilous journey from France.
The Home Office said there are other safer and legal routes for people to use to come to the UK such as work and study routes, as well as family resettlement.
It added the new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme will give 20,000 Afghans fleeing persecution a new life in the UK through a safe and legal route.
i revealed on Thursday that the Afghan Resettlement Scheme still has not opened three months after the Government announced it.
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