By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
LONDON (Worthy News) – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has come under pressure over its reporting of an attempt by migrants to cross the English Channel during which five people, including a seven-year-old girl, died.
A dinghy carrying more than 100 people set off from Wimereux, northern France, at about 6 am last Tuesday, April 23, and got into difficulties, according to French authorities, witnesses, and survivors.
Three men, a woman, and a child were killed, the French coastguard confirmed.
Some 49 people were rescued, while 59 others reportedly refused to leave the boat and continued their journey to Britain.
The BBC, the nation’s main tax-funded public broadcaster, was filming in the location on the same day and captured the crossing attempt.
News of the tragedy came just hours after Britain’s Parliament passed legislation on the government’s Rwanda asylum scheme under which migrants can be deported to Rwanda for asylum, processing, and resettlement.
In remarks carried by Britain’s Daily Express newspaper, the BBC defended its reporting, saying, “There is significant interest in people attempting to cross the Channel to the UK. We believe first-hand reporting is highly valued by audiences.”
‘NO FOREWARNING’
The statement added that “Our reporters near Calais had no forewarning of any particular attempt to make the crossing, but went to locations where boats had previously departed and reported what they found. They did not impede the work of the police, but showed the challenges they faced trying to stop boats departing.”
BBC’s Home Affairs correspondent, Tom Symonds, explained earlier that the coastline in the area measures about 43 miles (70 kilometers), and it is “very hard” to know where the boats are leaving from.
Symonds, who reported from the area, added, “We just got lucky. The boat did come, and people ran across and jumped into it. The police seemed to come at us and say, ‘You knew that this was going to happen…’ They took our IDs. They were quite angry, really.”
He acknowledged that “they were thinking that somehow we’d done a deal with the migrants to film them leaving. We absolutely didn’t and wouldn’t do that.”
Yet viewers are reeling from the footage, commented the Daily Express, a longtime conservative newspaper and online presence.
Television viewer Lynda Draycott wondered: “A question: how come the BBC was on the beach at exactly the moment the illegal immigrants took to the Channel – a trip that cost a child its life?”
Andrew Smith complained to the BBC Newswatch program: “In my opinion, the presence of the BBC reporter and cameras on the beach dissuaded the police from confronting the illegal migrants and smugglers. Leave the French police to do their job.”
DEADLY TRAGEDIES
Yet the BBC made clear it attempted to visualize the mounting migration problem faced by Europe.
The incident was among the deadliest in the Channel this year, taking the death toll to 15 in total, according to official data.
Officials say the Channel is getting more deadly as 25 people have died in crossings since August 2023, according to Home Office figures, out of a total of 73 fatalities in the past seven years.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty are known to have died on their way to Europe in recent years, including in the Mediterranean Sea.
“We want to prevent people making these very dangerous crossings . . . criminal gangs are exploiting vulnerable people,” Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Tuesday.
“They are packing more and more people into these unseaworthy dinghies,” he added. Sunak, a multimillionaire, claims to have learned from his parents the difficulties of migration.
He was born in Southampton to parents of Indian descent who immigrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.