\n<\/p>\n
Four people, including a two-year-old child, have died while attempting to cross the English Channel, French authorities say.<\/p>\n
The authorities said they were found “unconscious” and were likely “trampled to death” in two separate boats that had engine failures.<\/p>\n
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau called the deaths a “terrible tragedy”, adding that people smugglers “have the blood of these people on their hands”.<\/p>\n
In one of the incidents, a French rescue service picked up 15 people, including the child, and one person was airlifted to a French hospital with burns to their legs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, Jacques Billant, said one of the boats was off the coast of Boulogne-Sur-Mer in northern France which was carrying “almost 90 people” overnight.<\/p>\n
He said it got into difficulty after an engine failure and called French rescue services.<\/p>\n
“A French rescue boat went to the scene and picked up 15 migrants, including an unconscious child.<\/p>\n
“The medical team, dispatched by helicopter, was unable to save the two-year-old child, who was pronounced dead.”<\/p>\n
According to the Boulogne-Sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, the child was \u201ctrampled to death\u201d.<\/p>\n
A person on the vessel with burns to their legs was airlifted to hospital, Billant added.<\/p>\n
The remaining passengers on the boat continued their journey, the AFP news agency reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On a separate overcrowded small boat, another incident happened overnight off the coast of Calais when \u201cmultiple engine failures led to a stampede and some migrants fell into the water but were rescued\u201d, Billant told journalists. <\/p>\n
\u201cThree people \u2013 two men and a woman \u2013 were then discovered unconscious inside this small boat,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were likely trampled to death during the stampede.”<\/p>\n
According to French authorities, 51 migrants have lost their lives in 2024 while trying to cross the Channel to reach the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
“Our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organising these crossings of death,” Retailleau said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, also posting on X, described the deaths as “appalling”, adding that “criminal smuggler gangs continue to organise these dangerous boat crossings”.<\/p>\n
“The gangs do not care if people live or die – this is a terrible trade in lives,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said she had been in touch with Reailleau on Saturday, and they had met in Italy at the G7 meeting earlier this week, where they had discussed the matter. <\/p>\n
She previously said that an action plan agreed at that meeting “means new international joint investigative teams to pursue the gangs, finance and supply chains.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the country’s prime minister, Michel Barnier, said France needed a stricter immigration policy.<\/p>\n
Barnier said he would be “ruthless” with people traffickers, adding that they “exploit misery and despair” and encourage undocumented asylum seekers to cross the Channel and the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously said he was “absolutely determined” to tackle the smuggling gangs<\/a> facilitating the crossings but did not put a timeframe on that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Figures from the Home Office show there were 395 migrants on 4 October who arrived in the UK in small boats without permission to enter the country, and 59 arrived on 29 September.<\/p>\n More than 25,000 people have crossed the Channel in 2024 so far.<\/p>\n At least 194 migrants died attempting to cross the English Channel between 2018 and September 2024, according to estimates from the International Organization for Migration<\/a>, which is part of the UN.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n