THE CHANNEL

In the early morning of the 14th of December 2022 a major search and rescue operation was launched in the Channel after French and British maritime coastguard agencies received distress calls at 03:42 hours. The operation resulted in 43 people being rescued, with over 30 individuals being pulled from the water in freezing conditions after falling from a submerging rubber dinghy. Tragically, 4 lives were lost.

At the opening inquest at County Hall in Maidstone on the 23rd of December 2022, Kent area coroner Katrina Hepburn gave the provisional cause of death as drowning, and according to a Kent Police report it was “possible” that two of the individuals were from Afghanistan and two others from Senegal.

I photographed on the morning after this incident covering a 30 mile route from Dungeness to Dover; again visiting this coastline almost a year to the day after 27 migrants drowned in the channel in November 2021. It was blisteringly cold conditions, freezing. -7 degrees celsius when I left home at 05.00 in the morning to catch the early light. It was overwhelming to look out at this sea with its crisp blue sky and think that just a few hours before such mayhem and horror unfolded in these waters. It was overwhelming to consider that currently, thousands more people wait their turn to make it to the UK. Over 45,000 made this route in 2022, a 60% increase since 2021.