LONDON: Two-thirds of asylum seekers who arrived in Britain from January to June last year suffered from hypothermia, an investigation by The Guardian has revealed.
The newspaper accessed UK Home Office data, which also showed that hundreds of migrants had also suffered burns and suspected broken bones.
During that period, about 6,000 people managed to make the trip across the English Channel, typically in small vessels such as dinghies.
Of that number, 4,075 had hypothermia upon arrival. A further 354 had petrol or saltwater burns, and 27 were transferred to UK hospitals with suspected broken bones.
Those figures would be far higher if numbers for the whole year were accounted for. A total of 28,381 people arrived on British coastlines over the course of the year. In 2020 that figure was just 8,500, and 300 in 2018.
The trip across the Channel can prove deadly depending on weather conditions and the sturdiness of the vessel used. Last November, at least 27 people drowned after trying to cross in a poor-quality dinghy.
Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley condemned the lack of safe and legal routes for people to claim asylum in the UK.
“To find out that so many crossing in small boats are suffering hypothermia and nasty injuries when none of this is necessary is deeply upsetting,” she told The Guardian.
“It’s time we offered refugees a safe way to make their asylum claims without risking their lives.”