Several people including child die trying to cross Channel

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Louise Thomas

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A child is among several people who died attempting to cross the English Channel on Saturday, a French minister said.

French interior minister Bruno Retailleau said the child, believed to be around four, was “trampled to death in a boat” trying to reach England. He described the incident as a “terrible tragedy”.

Local newspaper La Voix du Nord suggested at least four migrants had died across two separate incidents.

“Today several people died trying to cross the Channel,” wrote Mr Retailleau on Twitter/X.

“A child was trampled to death in a boat. A terrible tragedy that must make us all aware of the tragedy that is unfolding.

“The people smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organising these crossings of death.”

The UK saw the first arrivals in five days on Friday from across the English Channel as 395 people landed on British shores.

The latest arrivals, who had travelled in seven boats, brought the total for the year to 25,639.

This compares to 25,330 by the same date last year and 33,611 in 2022.

Some of those arriving on Friday were pictured wearing life jackets as they were brought to shore at Dover on a Border Force vessel.

The arrivals came on the same day as the UK and other G7 nations agreed on an anti-smuggling action plan designed to boost cooperation on the issue following talks in Italy.

The Home Office said this includes joint investigations and intelligence sharing in a bid to target criminal smuggling routes.

The action plan also details “working collaboratively” with social media companies to monitor the internet and different platforms to prevent them from being used to enable migrant smuggling and people trafficking.

This includes calling on social media companies “to do more to respond to online content that advertises migrant smuggling services”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.

“As we have seen with so many recent devastating tragedies in the Channel, the people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.

“We are making progress, bolstering our personnel numbers in the UK and abroad. Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and enhance our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute these evil criminals.”