2-year-old boy ‘trampled to death’ on board a migrant boat in the English Channel

Oct. 5 (UPI) — A 2-year-old boy was “trampled to death” and three other migrants trying to cross the English Channel from France to Britain also died aboard crowded small boats while at sea, French said authorities Saturday.

According to the French Maritime Prefecture in La Manche, Normandy, an unconscious child was found on board one of the inflatable boats from which 15 other migrants were rescued off the coast near Calais.

The child was placed on board the rescue ship Abeille Normandy and medics from the French mobile emergency and maritime resuscitation service were flown in by a military helicopter. Despite their efforts, doctors pronounced the child dead shortly afterwards.

The prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, told reporters that the child was a 2-year-old boy who was “suffocated to death” during a wave of people boarding the crowded ship, which he said contained nearly 90 people were on board. when rescuers arrived.

Three adult migrants died on Saturday in a second boat with 71 people on board. Billant said they were also likely “crushed, suffocated and drowned” as passengers jostled in 18 inches of water that had collected at the bottom of the vessel.

A criminal investigation has been opened in both cases.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said in a social media post that the boy had been “trampled to death” on the boat and promised stronger action against human trafficking gangs who he said “have the blood of these people on their hands.”

The boy was born in Germany to a 24-year-old mother of Somali descent, local officials said, as they raised the alarm about criminal gangs seeking to pack increasing numbers of people onto dangerous boats, now averaging about 65 people per vessel.

Billant said the smugglers “do not hesitate to separate young children from their parents,” claiming the smugglers forcibly loaded the boy onto the boat after taking him away from his mother, who ultimately remained on shore.

Between Thursday and Saturday, French officials stopped 31 attempts to cross the English Channel. About 250 migrants were rescued by the maritime prefecture during the two days at sea.