Hugged by the cold, wrapped in black woolen hats and fluffy coats, across the dunes towards the beach: some are wearing red life jackets, dragging the rubber dinghy on their shoulders and heads, under a steel-gray November sky.
The government in Paris says it is working hard to stop illegal crossings of the English Channel, but the group of more than 40 people, including six children, who set off at dawn near Wimereux in northern France on Wednesday remained unstoppable.
Ahead of them lay cold waters and one of the busiest shipping routes in the world.
On Wednesday, November 24th, 2021, 27 people drowned off the coast of northern France when their rubber dinghy capsized.
It was the largest migrant disaster in the English Channel to date.
Later in the day, Reuters reporters saw the group, which sailed near Wimereux, was later brought ashore by rescuers in southern England.
The migrants started their journey to the UK shortly after sunrise. About 15 men carried the boat towards the sea. Behind them, others hauled the outboard motor. Families followed with their children. A French police car drove up to the group, flashed its lights and circled the migrants while trying to block their way to the sea.
A woman with a small child in her arms stood in the way of the vehicle and let out a scream, reported Reuters journalists. The police vehicle stopped and shortly thereafter continued to patrol another part of the beach. After the police left, the migrants put the boat in the sand on the bank, invited the children in and pushed it out to sea. As a woman waded into the biting cold water, she told Reuters, “Go UK” and swung a plastic bag of belongings on top of her head to keep them dry.
More people pulled themselves onto the boat, waist-high in the surf, supported by those who were already on board.
Finally the tiny boat was packed.
Some of the migrants waved as they left the coast.
Hours later, they landed near Dungeness, guided by a lifeboat.