Four people have died in small boat incidents off France – unconfirmed reports

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An unconfirmed number of people have died, including a child who was “trampled to death”, following two small boat incidents off France.

The French interior minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X that “several people had died”.

Local newspaper, La Voix Du Nord, has reported that three people had died off Calais and one near Boulogne, with rescue operations ongoing.

Mr Retailleau posted: “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.”

According to France24, the child, understood to be aged about four, was found in a boat and not in the water, and another migrant was injured and airlifted to hospital in Boulogne.

The news site quotes officials as saying that a French tow vessel, the Abeille Normandie, picked up 14 people on board and these were brought to the commercial port at Boulogne.

It adds that the incident was not a shipwreck and the boat and its other occupants continued its journey across the Channel.

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.

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 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”.

A Home Office spokesman 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.”