Migrants, travelling from the French coast to the UK wearing lifejackets bought from Decathlon

It is not just Ceuta with its tragic images of thousands of migrants swimming to reach the shores of the Spanish autonomous city, situated on North African soil. Closer to home, on the coast of northern France – with their gaze fixed across the English Channel towards England – asylum seekers face equally dangerous crossings to reach Great Britain, and they do so wearing poor-quality and unsafe life jackets, bought in bulk from the Decathlon chain in the French cities of Calais and Dunkirk for €17.99 each (£15.40).

This has been revealed by an investigation by the Daily Mail, according to which sports shops along this stretch of the French coast have become key hubs for the activities of gangs organising human trafficking to Britain. But this, the British newspaper points out, is merely the latest link in a vast international supply chain – stretching as far as China – which profits from the desperation, poverty and suffering of migrants.

A stretch of around 120 miles of the northern French coast, from Dunkirk to Dieppe, has served as a departure point for small boats heading for Britain ever since the outbreak of the European migration crisis in 2015.

Large camps of asylum seekers have sprung up in the area, where people fleeing violence and persecution await the right moment to make the dangerous crossing of the English Channel to the United Kingdom. Forced to wait indefinitely for a crossing for which they have probably paid exorbitant sums to people smugglers, migrants often have to be ready to set off at a moment’s notice. To do so, they seem to be turning – somewhat surprisingly – to the sports goods chain Decathlon.

Uno dei migranti iracheni intervistati dal Daily Mail fuori dal Decathlon di Dunkerque ha riferito che i due (ritratti in foto con sacchi pieni di giubbotti di salvataggio) avevano atteso per due mesi in Francia, insieme ai propri familiari, di poter effettuare la traversata

The Daily Mail reports that it observed men, women and children in the town of Dunkirk leaving the camps and travelling by bus to the nearby Decathlon store. Outside the shop’s main entrance, the journalist behind the investigation, Sophie Carlin, spoke to two other men who had just bought a dozen life jackets each, which they then packed into grey bin bags. The two men, originally from Iraq, chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from the British government, but confirmed that they intended to use the lifejackets to reach the UK aboard a small boat.