A total of 973 migrants cross the Channel on the busiest day of the year so far – The Irish News

A total of 973 migrants crossed the English Channel into Britain in 17 small boats on Saturday – the same day four people died – making it the busiest day of the year so far.

The arrivals take the total for the year to 26,612, compared to 25,330 on the same date last year and 33,611 in 2022, with 1,368 making the journey on Friday and Saturday combined, according to Home Office figures.

The crossings took place on the same day, killing a two-year-old boy, a woman and two men in two incidents off the coast of France.

A total of fifteen people were recovered aboard a towing vessel named l’Abeille, including the unconscious boy who – despite a medical team being whisked away by helicopter – was pronounced dead.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the boy had been “trampled to death.”

In the second incident, a boat with 83 people on board, which had sailed from the Calais area, suffered several engine failures causing panic on board, causing a number of occupants to fall into the sea, all of whom were rescued.

French authorities said that when 71 migrants were transferred from the inflatable boat to the Flamant – a French Navy patrol boat – three people were found unconscious on the bottom of the ship and two men and a woman, all around 30 years old , were declared dead. .

The prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, Jacques Billant, said that since Thursday evening, 31 crossing attempts have been prevented by French police and almost 250 migrants have been rescued at sea.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged an immediate investment of £75 million in border security, with funding made available to the National Crime Agency to pay for covert operations equipment to disrupt people smugglers.

The Home Office said this would support the conduct of criminal investigations and disruption operations in Britain, across Europe and in upstream countries.

This week, Britain and other G7 countries agreed an action plan against smuggling aimed at boosting cooperation in this area following talks in Italy.

The Home Office said this included joint investigations and intelligence sharing in an effort to tackle criminal smuggling routes.

The action plan also describes “working together” with social media companies to monitor the internet and various platforms to prevent them from being used to facilitate migrant smuggling and human trafficking.

This included a call on social media companies “to do more to respond to online content advertising migrant smuggling services”.