KEIR STARMER’S record on migration is already worse than the last government. The number of tragedies in the Channel in 2024 will dwarf last year and the previous two years put together.

So far this year, 61 people have died crossing the Channel, almost three times the number in 2023, making 2024 the worst year for Channel deaths in the last decade, with 15 people dying in the last month alone.

But this is not about numbers. The blood, dreams and futures of people seeking a better life lie lifeless in our seas.

Our violent border policies have snatched away the laughter and love of the two-year-old baby who died last month and drowned the optimism of the 28-year-old man who dreamt of making a life in our country.

But these are not “accidents” or “tragedies.” They are a choice, made by the people controlling our borders. These deaths could have been stopped years ago — successive governments have chosen not to. The blood of these people is on the hands of our politicians.

Instead of trying to dismantle an immigration system that clearly privileges some lives above others, this week Starmer announced that his answer to the deadly crisis is to spend an extra £75 million on border security. This is a stain on the legacy of those who lost their lives, with the only people who stand to profit being the corporations who police our borders.

British company Airbus, for example, have made mega profits from operating drones searching for migrants in the Mediterranean, while at the same time forcing cleaning and maintenance workers to strike for a fair wage.

We know that these violent border policies only put migrants’ lives at risk when, in June, we saw one of the worst tragedies in the Mediterranean, a whole four years after the EU spent millions on drone contracts with Airbus.

Between 2017 and 2021, the British government spent over £1 billion on border security and surveillance contracts. Far from protecting people crossing the Channel or preventing them from making the dangerous crossing, the number of deaths keeps rising year on year. It isn’t hard to see how much of a colossal waste of money border security is. Starmer’s policy only serves to fill the coffers of big business.

Instead of preventing Channel crossings, border security makes them more treacherous and traumatic.

Our client, Daniel, had no choice other than to travel by Channel crossing, there was no safe route to use. But it didn’t need to be this way. He fled Syria after feeling he would be forced to join either President Bashar al-Assad’s army or the resistance forces. His case was the exact reason the Syrian resettlement route was set up in 2019. Instead, this dedicated route was shut down in 2021, leaving people like Daniel with only one option.

People trafficking and smuggling across the Channel is a symptom of the problem — not the cause. The “business model” of trafficking exists because the government has shut down all safe routes for people to travel to Britain, forcing them to risk their lives and fuelling the trade of people traffickers. The solution couldn’t be clearer for anyone who sees people crossing the Channel as full human beings with lives as valuable as yours and mine.

After years of governments focusing on trafficking gangs and criminalising people who move, we know it simply does not work.

The only way to stop Channel deaths is by opening up safe routes. The Home Office’s statistics back this up — according to them, only one Ukrainian has been found to cross the channel compared to thousands of Afghanis.

The reason for this? Ukrainians were given a safe route via an online visa scheme while the Afghan resettlement scheme has been shut down. This is particularly egregious, considering Afghanis here are victims of a conflict we have played a major part in.

It’s hard not to see this double standard as racism, pure and simple.

With Donald Trump’s election win in the US and Giorgia Meloni moving the EU to the right, Britain has an even greater responsibility to stop the rot.

While Trump has promised the “biggest deportation in history” and even joked about setting up a league for migrants to fight each other, now is not the time to back down from challenging dehumanising and racist migrant policy.

Now, more than ever, we must take a stand against anti-migrant narratives and policies. If not, each death in the Channel is more blood on our hands.

Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah is director of communications at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.