DUNGENESS, United Kingdom
Pictures of the Year: A Picture and its Story
Migrants are brought ashore by RNLI Lifeboat staff, police officers and Border Force staff, after having crossed the channel, in Dungeness, Britain, November 24, 2021. Reuters photographer Henry Nicholls: "Thousands of migrants a year flee wars and poverty in the Middle East and Africa and make a perilous crossing over the English Channel for a better life in Britain. The Channel is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong. Human traffickers typically overload the dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at the mercy of waves as they try to reach British shores. In November, after several days of high winds and large swells in the Channel, there was a 24-hour break, which would make crossings less dangerous. I expected that a large number of migrants would attempt a crossing that day, even with temperatures near freezing. The potential stretch of coastline for landings is vast. However, using a mix of rescue vessel tracking and shipping forecast apps, it's possible to identify likely crossing points. The image shows a boat of migrants, with several children, disembarking on the beach in Dungeness. It was the fourth or fifth boat to be escorted to shore that day by rescue crews from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The children were remarkably calm. However the adults on board showed an overwhelming sense of relief. They were emotionally and physically exhausted, well aware of the extreme risk they had taken. I recognised the boy in the colourful checkered outfit from pictures taken by my colleague Gonzalo Fuentes of a group leaving the French coastline earlier in the day. It was a wonderful relief to know that they were safely across, after six hours at sea." REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo SEARCH "POY STORIES 2021" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
