Calais, France – Twenty-two children died attempting to cross the UK-France border between 2024 and 2025. Their names were Abadeh, Mohamed, Roula, Sara, Abdelaziz, Mohammed, Ishannullah, Sablia, Meri, Mansur, Maryam, Salah, Agdad, and nine children whose names we do not know. Many more people have been killed or gone missing.

 

These deaths were not accidents, nor were they inevitable. Research published by children’s charity Project Play highlights that they were the foreseeable consequence of political choices by the UK government, paid for using UK taxes. 

 

Since 2014, the UK government has spent at least £784 million funding border enforcement in northern France, while restricting and removing access to safe routes to asylum. As a result, people - including children and families - are left with no viable option but to attempt the dangerous crossing of the English Channel, most often in small boats. 

 

To remember these children, Project Play held vigils in Leeds, London and Manchester across the weekend to remember the children who died. The Leeds vigil was also attended by Harmony Choir, a local choir which connects newcomers to the UK with their local community, and Asylum Speakers joined the London vigil. 

 

The vigils were both an act of remembrance and a demand for accountability, as Project Play joins with Humans for Rights Network in calling for an inquiry into UK spending at the border.

 

Lily MacTaggart, an organiser at the Leeds vigil, said:

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“The UK government does not even count these deaths. Neither the UK nor French authorities publish an official list of people who die at the border. But every one of these children mattered. Each of them laughed, played, and dreamed of a future.

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“These children were trying to reach safety - something rising hostility across the UK, France and Europe makes increasingly impossible. Removing access to safe routes to seek asylum leaves parents and families with no choice - yet this, coupled with violent border enforcement, is the UK government’s policy. UK taxpayers are funding a system that not only denies families any alternative to reach safety, but exposes them to violence. We have worked with children as young as 2-months-old who have been teargassed.

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“When a child dies in the UK or France, there is an investigation. There is accountability. The children who die at the border are denied even this basic dignity. Their deaths are treated as acceptable collateral damage as the government pursues policies of hostility rather than humanity.

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“Our new report shows that UK funding and policy are directly implicated in these deaths and in the daily violence still faced by children at the border. Our taxes fund it. This should make everyone in the UK angry. There must be a full and independent inquiry into UK funding at the border now.”

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Project Play’s newly published report, Nowhere Safe: The Impact of UK-Funded Border Violence against Children in Northern France, documents sustained violence, trauma and child fatalities at the UK-France border. It sets out clear evidence linking the UK’s enforcement-first approach to the conditions that killed these children.

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The report finds that increased UK spending on border security has not prevented crossings, instead making them more dangerous, whilst exposing children to repeated harm, displacement and trauma. The more money the UK pays the French government to secure the border, the more dangerous these crossing attempts become.

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As part of its Stop Border Violence campaign, Project Play is calling for an independent statutory inquiry into the impact of UK government funding and policy at the border. This would work in parallel with an ongoing French parliamentary inquiry. The charity is also calling for all UK funding for border enforcement in northern France to be suspended until the inquiry is complete, and for the immediate creation of safe and accessible routes to asylum in the UK.

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“No one should die trying to find safety,” the spokesperson said. “These children deserved lives of peace, freedom and joy. They should still be alive. Until the UK confronts its role in this violence, more children will die - and UK taxpayers will continue to fund it.”

 

** ENDS **

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CONTACT

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Lily MacTaggart - Report Co-Author + Leeds Vigil Organiser

Kate O’Neill - Report Co-Author + London Vigil Organiser

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>> Both can be reached via info@project-play.org

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

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• • Project Play provides play services, parental support and safeguarding casework to children aged 0–18 living in informal sites around Calais and Dunkirk, France. project-play.org/ 

  • The Stop Border Violence campaign and full report, Nowhere Safe, is available at project-play.org/stop-border-violence

  • A French parliamentary inquiry is currently investigating the impacts of bilateral UK-France border agreements. See www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/69825/immigration--les-accords-du-touquet-evalues-par-une-commission-denquete-parlementaire-francaise 

  • An explanation of bilateral UK-France policy and funding of the border since 2014 can be found at commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9681/

 

*Names were changed to protect the identities of individuals