Guardian photographer David Levene visited northern France after twenty-seven people drowned in the Channel last week as they attempted to make the perilous crossing from France to Britain across busy shipping lanes in a dinghy that deflated in the open sea.
The number of people crossing the Channel has increased to 25,776 in 2021, up from 8,461 in 2020, according to Home Office figures. Those who want to cross gather at camps that have sprung up between Calais and Dunkirk. The police routinely destroy the makeshift camps and their occupants are dispersed to holding centres across the country, though many soon return to the coast in northern France.
After a previous camp was destroyed by French authorities last week, a new one sprang up on disused railway tracks near to Grand-Synthe, a suburb of Dunkirk.