Small boat migrant deaths leave Atlantic College students angry
British Broadcasting CorporationSixth grade students said they were angry at the death toll and wanted to help rescue migrants at sea.
Robin Jenkins, director of a charity at St Donats College of the Atlantic in the Vale of Glamorgan, was involved in a mission that included rescuing 32 people, including a baby, from an “unseaworthy” rubber boat and three unaccompanied children. .
Mr Jenkins said students from all over the world came to the college to take courses in skills such as repairing inflatable boats so they could help.
The Home Office has pledged to “spare no effort” to disrupt people smuggling gangs organizing small boat crossings.
Jenkins said the Mediterranean was “strewn with skeletons and it was a horrific situation” and that 2024 was also the deadliest year in the English Channel.
The independent sixth-form college has pupils from 60 countries and Mr Jenkins said: “There are young people in the Mediterranean who see these horrific stories on TV and say ‘This can’t happen anymore, I can’t watch this anymore’ , I have to participate.”
“Students here are angry, they come from all over the world, and some of the students here have experienced these horrors themselves or have close connections to these horrors.”
Since 2018, more than 147,000 people have arrived in the UK by small boat.
Tackling the issue has been a major focus of successive governments, with current Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowing Use counter-terrorism tactics Stop human smuggling gangs “before they get there”.
The central Mediterranean is the main migration route into the EU and the most dangerous in the world.
A total of 1,983 people have died along this route this year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) records.
Mr Jenkins said many people were fleeing war, oppression and poverty.
He added: “The misinformation around the whole thing is part of the problem, they’re told it’s easy.
“They were told they would be safe here, they were told Europe was waiting for them with open arms, but they were often blackmailed.”
Atlantic Rescue International, based at College of the Atlantic, provides lifeboats, crews and training courses.
Mr Jenkins added: “When you rescue people, not only are they in pain, but they have been through a long journey of pain, exploitation and torture.”
In the 1960s, students at the College of the Atlantic invented the rigid-hull inflatable boat, or RIB, design.
With its solid bottom and flexible sides, the RIB has become a cornerstone of modern boating and can be used for recreational, military and, crucially, life-saving purposes.
The college sold the rights to the RNLI for £1, but the legacy remains.
Students Lucy and Kate repair an inflatable rib as part of their Atlantic Pacific course training.
Lucy said: “This is a big problem and the more global warming gets, the more serious the migration problem will be.
“Drowning is the third leading killer in the world.”
As part of the course, students learn about shipbuilding, operating and maintaining vessels, and learn about maritime rescue.
Finlay and Effa also took part in the training.
Finlay said: “We are currently facing a serious refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, with many people drowning because they are crammed into small boats.
“The ship is sinking and there are not enough resources to effectively help these people.”
“The number of migrants is increasing globally and obviously lifeboats play an important role in saving lives and I wanted to know more about it because it is so important in the world right now,” Effa said.
On September 3, a boat carrying dozens of people sank off the coast of France, killing 12 people, including 6 children and a pregnant woman.
A month later, four people, including a two-year-old boy, died after they appeared to be “trampled” by two different boats.
According to the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project, 54 migrants have drowned in the English Channel so far this year.
Theo Tran, 23, is a trainer for the charity and has been involved in rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
He grew up in Vietnam and moved to the UK aged 15 to study at university and said helping to solve the refugee crisis was always the “ultimate goal”.
He added: “Even though you’re tired and you’re in shock, you can feel proud of the work you’ve done because you know you’re doing the right thing, even though it may be hard out there.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want an end to dangerous small boat crossings as they threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“Smuggling gangs don’t care whether the vulnerable people they exploit live or die as long as they pay.”
