BERCK-SUR-MER, France: Some 30 migrants whose dinghy capsized in the English channel as they tried to reach Britain were rescued on Friday, while one man who was on board died, French authorities said.
A coast guard vessel reached the dinghy, which had set off from a beach near Calais, northern France, in the middle of the night, and was able to rescue most of those on board.
But one of the migrants, a young man from Sudan, was dead in the water, according to local Deputy Prefect Frederic Sampson. The man died from hypothermia, amid temperatures between -1 and -3 degrees Celsius on the open sea.
Once brought back to shore by rescuers, the survivors — some of whom wore flip flops and carried their belongings in plastic trash bags — boarded a large white coach to be sent to temporary housing in the region. They were flanked by police.
The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong. Human traffickers typically overload the dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at the mercy of waves as they try to reach British shores.
In November, 27 migrants died https://www.reuters.com/world/five-migrants-drown-crossing-channel-franc... in what was the worst disaster on record involving migrants in the narrow seaway, sparking a rift between London and Paris over who bore responsibility.
The number of people who capsized in the Calais region more than tripled last year, according to the French Immigration and Integration Office, which said that French authorities rescued 1,002 people in 2021.
British media earlier this month reported that, according to figures from the UK Interior Ministry, over 28,000 migrants made it to Britain by crossing the English channel in small boats.
In a makeshift camp in Dunkirk, near Calais, where families have pitched their tents along an old train line, the danger was not putting people off making the trip.
“I tried yesterday night, but I didn’t pass. But tonight, I want (to) try again, Inshallah,” said Arman Tahna, 25, using an Arabic term that means “God willing.”
Some 30 migrants rescued, one dead as dinghy capsizes in Channel
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Some 30 migrants rescued, one dead as dinghy capsizes in Channel
- The number of people who capsized in the Calais region more than tripled last year, according to the French Immigration and Integration Office, which said that French authorities rescued 1,002 people in 2021
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
