Migrant crisis: The windswept beaches of opportunity and fear

The brutal journeys migrants make across the Channel are book-ended with beaches that tell the story of the crisis in microcosm: from guerrilla-style smuggling operations among the French dunes to streams of soaking passengers washing ashore in Kent, waiting to be bussed to an unknown future.

New arrivals in the camps here are given tips on how to find their people-smuggler. One young man, who had recently made it from Afghanistan, was told to look for "the Kurdish man" hanging around during food distribution twice a week. No-one the BBC spoke to had any problems finding someone to take them across.

One man, who has worked for the smugglers in the past - let us call him David - explained to us that each smuggler has his favourite hiding places. "They wait until the last minute, then bring the passengers one by one towards the beach, and hide them behind rocks or trees." The stakes have only grown as French security forces have increased their patrols. The government here now says it's stopping more than half of all crossing attempts.

The French authorities offer rescue to anyone in distress, but the UK Border Force union has told the BBC that migrants are often reluctant to accept assistance while in French waters, for fear of being taken back to French soil.

Just re-settle the migrants next to all the rich people neighborhoods! And the politicians!

Call it “criminal immigrant crisis” and be accurate with your wording.

Please could the BBC educate these ignorant people who tweet such awful things about the migrants. Who they are, where they come from, why they come, what happens to them etc. Because these disgusting comments from people who know nothing!! THESE PEOPLE ARE HUMAN BEINGS!

Maybe it’s best we left the EU if France is so bad you need to flee from it

Illegal immigrants, they’re not migrants, migrants apply to come to the U.K.

They are illegal's they could be ISIS soldiers for all we know What are all the do gooders going to do when fighting erupted on our streets Where are they going to run too?

The french police are in effect the people smugglers.

👏 There 👏 Is 👏 No 👏 Migrant 👏 Crisis

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