Toddler ‘trampled to death’ as ​​migrants try to cross the Channel | Migration news

At least four people, including a two-year-old child, die in two attempts to cross the Channel on overcrowded boats.

A two-year-old child has been crushed and three other people have died during two attempts to cross the English Channel on overcrowded boats, French authorities say.

“A child was trampled to death,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Saturday on X. “…The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands, and our government will intensify the fight against these gangs who enrich themselves through this deadly to organize crossings.”

The toddler’s body was found in a boat on Saturday and three adult immigrants were killed while trying to reach the British coast on another boat, said Jacques Billant, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region. desk.

A rubber boat carrying the toddler made a call for help on Saturday morning and was picked up by a French tow ship, the Abeille Normandie. Officials said the ship had 14 people on board, including the deceased, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. (06 a.m. to 7 a.m. GMT).

French officials clarified that the incident was not a shipwreck and that the deceased child was found in the boat and not in the water. The remaining passengers continued their journey.

Another boat overcrowded with migrants also suffered engine failure off the coast of Calais in France, sparking panic. Some migrants fell into the sea and were rescued.

Three people – two men and a woman aged about 30 – were subsequently found unconscious in the bottom of the boat, Billant told reporters.

The three were “probably crushed, suffocated and drowned” in the water at the bottom of the boat, the prefect said.

The border crossings continue despite promises of a crackdown

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the “terrible” tragedies.

“It is devastating that more lives have been lost in the Channel today, including a young child, as criminal smuggling gangs continue to organize these dangerous boat crossings,” she said in a post on X.

“The gangs don’t care whether people live or die – this is a terrible trade in lives.”

Cooper said she was in contact with Retailleau, adding that the two met this week to discuss “our determination to increase cooperation and law enforcement efforts to pursue and dismantle criminal gangs.”

The latest tragedies bring to 51 the number of migrants who have died trying to reach Britain from France so far this year, Billant said. Eight people died in mid-September when their overcrowded ship capsized while trying to cross the Channel.

The number of undocumented migrants to Britain has skyrocketed since 2018, reaching 25,000 since the start of this year. The French and British governments have tried to stem the flow of these asylum seekers and migrants, who can pay smugglers thousands of euros each to cross to England from France aboard small boats.

France’s new right-wing Prime Minister Michel Barnier said on Tuesday that the country needs a stricter immigration policy. He vowed to be “ruthless” against human traffickers, who he said “exploit the misery and desperation” that drives undocumented asylum seekers to risk crossing the Channel and the Mediterranean.

Stopping the arrival of small boats on England’s south coast was a major issue at the British general election in July, with new Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing plans to deal with the influx of small boats crossing from France after plans by the former Conservative government’s decision to deport asylum seekers to France had been scrapped. Rwanda.

Cooper has said the government is aiming for the highest number of deportations of rejected asylum seekers in five years over the next six months.