France sees Channel migrant deaths as a problem of Britain's making

Many in France deeply resent the way their own lives have been transformed by a crisis they see as British-made.

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Shortly after the last bodies had been driven away from the quayside in Boulogne, the remaining ambulances and red emergency vehicles drove off too, leaving only a handful of officials standing in the fading light beside a few frayed fishing nets near the harbour wall.

“It’s so upsetting,” said Frederic Cuvillier, Boulogne’s mayor, reflecting on the way this long, constantly evolving migrant crisis has reshaped - and traumatised - France’s northern coastline.

On Tuesday six children and a pregnant woman were among 12 people who died after a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the coast here, in the English Channel.

“These people flee death and end up dying here. Mothers, children… convinced they will find a better life across the Channel,” said Cuvillier, gesturing west, towards a grey sea.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9v8272vkxpo

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