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Agence France-Presse

Several people died, including a young child, when an overcrowded boat attempted to cross the English Channel to Britain, French authorities said on Saturday.
Another would-be asylum seeker was injured and airlifted to hospital after the dinghy issued a call for help on Saturday morning.
A French tow vessel, the Abeille Normandie, picked up 14 people on board, including the deceased during a rescue mission between 8:00 and 9:00am, officials said.
“Yet again, several migrants lost their lives trying to reach Britain by crossing the Channel,” the Pas-de-Calais prefecture in northern France said.
“A child was trampled to death,” France’s hardline interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said on X, adding that several other people had died in the “appalling drama”.
“The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will intensify the fight against these gangs who enrich themselves by organising these deadly crossings,” Retailleau added.
French officials said the accident was not a shipwreck and the dead child had been found in the boat, not in the water.
Olivier Barbarin, the mayor of the coastal town of Le Portel in northern France, said the child was around four years old.

The injured person was airlifted to hospital in Boulogne, northern France.
The other passengers continued their journey.
French authorities seek to stop people taking to the water but do not intervene once they are afloat except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.
The Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office confirmed the dead child had been “very young” but did not immediately release other details.
Barbarin said the 14 passengers rescued had disembarked at the town’s commercial port.
Channel crossings to Britain by undocumented asylum seekers have ballooned since 2018 despite repeated warnings about the perilous journey.
The Channel has heavy maritime traffic, icy waters, and strong currents.
The French and British governments have sought to stop the flow of undocumented migrants, who may pay smugglers thousands of euros per head for the passage to England from France aboard small boats.
France’s new right-wing prime minister, Michel Barnier, said on Tuesday the country needed a stricter immigration policy.

He vowed to be “ruthless” with people traffickers, who he said “exploit misery and despair” that pushed undocumented asylum seekers to risk trying to cross the Channel and the Mediterranean.
The latest tragedy comes after eight migrants died in mid-September when their overcrowded vessel capsized while trying to cross the Channel.
In early September at least 12 people including six minors, mostly from Eritrea, died off the northern French coast when their loaded boat capsized.
The number of migrants arriving in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats has topped 25,000 since the start of the year.
Stopping the small boat arrivals on England’s southern coast was a key issue in Britain’s general election in July.
British Interior Minister Yvette Cooper has said the government aims over the next six months to achieve the highest rate of deportations of failed asylum seekers in five years.


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Child ‘trampled to death’ in asylum seekers’ Channel crossing

An aerial view taken on September 21 shows inflatable dinghies and outboard engines stored in a Port Authority yard in Dover, southeast England, that are believed to have been used by migrants who were picked up at sea whilst crossing the English Channel from France. Photo: AFP

France’s Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau (left) listens to French gendarmes during a French gendarmerie operation on the A83 highway toll in Les Essarts, western France, on Friday. Photo: AFP

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier delivers his general policy speech at the National Assembly in Paris, France, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Austrian far-right head urges rivals to let him govern after election win

The leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Herbert Kickl, holds a press conference on the coalition talks that are beginning after the FPO won a plurality of the vote in parliamentary elections, but fell short of a majority, in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen makes a statement in the presidential chancellery on the occasion of result of the National Council election in Purkersdorf, on September 29. Photo: dpa

UK’s Starmer seeks to learn from Meloni’s tough migration policies at Rome meeting

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, Italy on Monday. Photo: LaPresse via Zuma Press / dpa

Migrants attempting to cross the English Channel to reach Britain get on an inflatable dinghy in Wimereux, France. Photo: Reuters

Migrants picked up at sea attempting to cross the English Channel from France disembark in Dover, southeast England. Photo: AFP

An Italian Coast Guard patrol boat rescuing migrants from a sinking ship off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy. Photo: Italian Coast Guard via AP

Rescuers search for missing migrants after boat sinks off Canary Islands, 9 dead

A rescued migrant is assisted by members of the Red Cross after arriving with 59 others on board a small wooden boat that departed from Mauritania, at La Restinga harbor in El Hierro island, Canaries, Spain. Photo: EPA/EFE

A group of migrants walk at the CATE (Temporary Reception Centre for Foreigners) in San Andres on the island of El Hierro, Spain. Photo: Reuters

UK’s PM Keir Starmer visits Brussels for first talks on EU reset

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen speak to the press at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Photo: Reuters

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) speaks to members of the media in Rome. Starmer has already visited Berlin, Paris, Rome and Dublin to lay the groundwork for a reset with the EU. Photo: Reuters

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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen speaks to the media as she arrives at court in Paris on Monday. Photo: AP

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections. File photo: AFP

People attend a protest in Paris on September 7 as French left parties called for rallies against President Emmanuel Macron’s politics, including the appointment of a right-wing prime minister. Photo: EPA-EFE

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A French tow vessel picked up 14 people on board, including the deceased during a rescue mission between 8:00 and 9:00am


A French tow vessel picked up 14 people on board, including the deceased during a rescue mission between 8:00 and 9:00am.


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