Four migrants have died while attempting to cross the English Channel from France to the UK, according to a French maritime official. Local authorities have said that the deceased individuals were from Iraq and Syria. An additional person is in a critical condition and has been transferred to a nearby hospital. The incident occurred at around 2 am local time, when about 70 people attempted to board a small boat to cross the English Channel from a beach. The vessel, however, overturned, resulting in dozens being plunged into the water.
The French coast guard, responding to rescue efforts, found the bodies. Approximately 50 firefighters and several police vehicles were deployed in the incident. The UK Coastguard had no involvement as the incident took place in close proximity to the Wimereux beach. This latest tragedy comes a day after the first small boat crossings between France and the UK this year were recorded. While 2023’s provisional total of 29,437 crossings is down from the record 45,774 crossings in 2022, last year, however, still saw the second-highest annual number of crossings on record.
In reaction to the deaths, Enver Solomon, the CEO of the Refugee Council, said that these losses should serve as a wake-up call to take prompt and decisive action. That includes providing safe routes for people fleeing war-torn countries and needing to migrate for their survival. Conservative MPs are piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over his government’s Rwanda Bill, which is designed to discourage migrants from trying to cross the Channel in small boats. Speaking on the matter, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer stated that this was a tragic loss of life and that he agreed that such crossings need to be stopped.
David Cameron, the former British Prime Minister, said that the UN needs to be given more power to intervene in the dangerous journeys carried out by migrants in search of a new life. UN officials have warned, for example, that the Iraq-Syria border could blow up into a renewed conflict, leading to ethnic clashes, a refugee crisis, and renewed violence against civilians. It is not clear whether the pandemic, together with the current political instability in the Middle East, is fuelling the surge in migrants. Last year, however, it was Indonesia’s Java island that saw the highest number of asylum seekers arriving
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