Boy, two, among four deaths in two ‘tragedies’ involving small boats off France

A two-year-old boy, a woman and two men died in “two tragedies” off the coast of France, the Prefect of Pas-de-Calais region has confirmed.

Jacques Billant, said that in the first incident on Saturday, the French coastguard responded to a boat carrying nearly 90 people on board which was suffering engine failure.

A total of 15 people were recovered from onboard to a tow vessel called l’Abeille, including the boy who was unconscious and despite a medical team being scrambled by helicopter, he was declared dead.

The French interior minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X that the boy had been “trampled to death”.

Mr Billant said that the other 14 migrants, including a 17-year-old who suffered burns to his legs, were taken to the port of Boulogne to receive care before being questioned by police.

The rest of the occupants were allowed to continue their journey to the UK, Mr Billant said.

In the second incident, a boat with 83 people on board which had sailed from the Calais area, suffered several engine failures which caused panic on board leading to some of the occupants falling into the sea who were all rescued.

Mr Billant said that when 71 migrants were transferred from the inflatable boat to the Flamant – a French navy patrol boat, three people were found unconscious at the bottom of the boat.

He said that they were “probably crushed and suffocated during the jostling and drowned in the 40 centimetres of water present in the boat”.

He added: “Despite the intervention of the doctors, they were declared dead. They are two men and a woman, all three around 30 years old.”

Mr Billant said the remaining 12 occupants attempted to continue their journey across the Channel, but were eventually rescued again and taken back to France.

Mr Billant said: “Two new tragedies occurred at sea this morning.

“The toll is very heavy, since we deeply regret the death of four people: two men, a woman and a child.”

Mr Billant told a press conference that the two incidents on Saturday followed previous fatal incidents on September 3 and 15 – and brings the total of deaths so far this year to 51.

He said that people-smugglers had separated children from their parents to go on the over-crowded boats, but did not specify if this included the boy who died.

Mr Billant said: “Through the lure of profit and disregard for human life, smuggling networks are putting people at ever greater risk, not only adults but also more and more families with children and babies, to whom they sell crossings on a dangerous sea and in totally unsuitable boats.

“This is literally leading them to accidents and death, as was the case on September 3, September 15 and again this morning.”

He added that the migrants rescued on Saturday were from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq.

Mr Retailleau posted on X: “Today several people died trying to cross the Channel. 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.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that she had been in touch with the French interior minister.

She posted on X on Saturday afternoon: “It is appalling that more lives have been lost in the Channel today, including a young child, as criminal smuggler gangs continue to organise these dangerous boat crossings.

“The gangs do not care if people live or die – this is a terrible trade in lives.”

Dr Wanda Wyporska, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said : “It’s appalling that a child has been reportedly trampled to death and yet more people have lost their lives attempting to cross the Channel to reach safety.

“Far too many people have died this year at the hands of smugglers who are exploiting the UK’s lack of safe routes for refugees.

“Refugees cannot apply for asylum in the UK without being in the country.

“Without safe routes for refugees to get here, we will only see more children, women and men dying in desperate attempts to reach somewhere safe to start to rebuild their lives with family. The Government must urgently provide safe pathways for them to do that.”

The fatal incident comes after the Home Office confirmed that 395 migrants arrived in the UK crossed the English Channel on Friday in the first arrivals in five days.

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

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

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

The Home Office said this will support the delivery of criminal investigations and disruption operations in the UK, across Europe and in upstream countries.

This week the UK and other G7 nations agreed an anti-smuggling action plan designed to boost co-operation 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 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”.

The Home Secretary said: “Criminal smuggling gangs who organise small boat crossings undermine our border security and put lives at risk, as we tragically saw again today.

“The new Government is rapidly accelerating co-operation with other countries to crack down on these dangerous gangs. This includes funding new technology to support specialist operations being run across Europe and beyond.

“It’s vital that we disrupt the way these violent and dangerous gangs operate. That means going after their supply chains, so boats and engines don’t reach the French coast and following flows of money through the criminal networks.

“In the coming months, we will be scaling up our Border Security Command, recruiting more investigative officers and working more closely with our European partners to ensure these criminal gangs are stopped and brought to justice.”