WIMEREUX, France: Five migrants, including a seven-year-old girl, died Tuesday trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain, local authorities said, just hours after Britain passed a controversial bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The British government has cast its Rwanda plan, which cleared a final hurdle in parliament on Monday to international criticism, as part of measures to deter migrants from making the perilous sea crossing and avert such tragedies.
The latest tragedy at sea off the northern French town of Wimereux brings to 15 the number of migrants who have died so far this year trying to reach English shores, according to an AFP tally.
That is already more than the 12 migrants killed in the whole of last year while making the crossing to seek a better future in Britain, according to official figures.
A seven-year-old girl, three men and a woman were killed on Tuesday in the latest accident in Wimereux, local government official Jacques Billant said.
The boat carrying 112 people, including Syrians and Iraqis, set off before dawn but the engine stopped just a few hundred meters from the beach and several people fell into the cold sea water, he said.
Rescue services rushed to help, but failed to resuscitate five people on the sand, Billant said.
Around 50 migrants were rescued and brought to the nearby resort town of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
But the others refused to disembark and chose to try again to cross the busy shipping lane, with the French navy accompanying them to make sure they did not capsize, Billant said.
On Tuesday morning, police had cordoned off the beach, an AFP journalist said.
Two ambulance helicopters were stationed nearby.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has been under mounting pressure to stem the number of Channel crossings, particularly following a promise of a tougher approach to immigration after the United Kingdom left the European Union.
“These tragedies have to stop. I will not accept a status quo which costs so many lives,” UK interior minister James Cleverly said on X.
“This government is doing everything we can to end this trade, stop the boats and ultimately break the business model of the evil people smuggling gangs, so they no longer put lives at risk.”
He spoke after controversial UK government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda cleared a final hurdle in parliament on Monday.
The United Nations and Europe’s highest rights body have urged Britain to scrap the plan.
Tuesday’s tragedy is just the latest in a string of migrant deaths.
A seven-year-old Iraqi girl named Rola drowned on March 3 in the capsizing of an overcrowded migrant boat in the Aa canal, around 30 kilometers (19 miles) inland from France’s northern coast. Her parents and brothers survived.
People attempting to reach Britain have increasingly been boarding boats on inland waterways to avoid stepped-up patrols on the French coast.
In late February, a 22-year-old Turkish man died and two more people went missing in the Channel off Calais.
In January, five people including a 14-year-old Syrian died in Wimereux as they waded through chilly seawater to reach a boat off the coast.
British officials processed 5,373 migrants landing on the shores of southeast England in the first three months of this year after crossing the Channel in small vessels, the British interior ministry says.
Five migrants die attempting Channel crossing
https://arab.news/buqat
Five migrants die attempting Channel crossing
- The latest tragedy at sea off the northern French town of Wimereux brings to 15 the number of migrants who have died so far this year trying to reach English shores
- A seven-year-old girl, three men and a woman were killed on Tuesday in the latest accident in Wimereux, local government official Jacques Billant said
Will Afghanistan’s pledge against cross-border attacks ease tensions with Pakistan?
- Afghan clerics’ decree banned use of Afghan soil for cross-border attacks on Wednesday
- Latest heavy firing between Afghanistan, Pakistan killed at least 5 people
KABUL: As tensions flare up again between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Afghan leadership has moved to reaffirm its commitment against cross-border militancy this week in what is seen as Kabul’s attempt to move the needle on peace negotiations, after multiple rounds of talks failed to produce a lasting truce.
The neighboring countries have struggled to maintain a fragile ceasefire after border clashes killed dozens in October, the worst fighting since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.
While subsequent talks toward a permanent ceasefire yielded little progress, the temporary truce brokered by Qatar and Turkiye collapsed last Friday, with heavy firing along the Spin Boldak-Chaman border that killed at least five people.
Over the years Pakistan has put much of the blame for the border clashes on the government in Kabul allowing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — an outlawed armed group, which is separate from the Afghan Taliban — to use Afghan territory for cross-border attacks — a claim that Afghanistan has repeatedly denied.
Afghanistan again pledged to prevent its territory from being used to harm other countries on Thursday, with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi highlighting it as a religious duty, as endorsed just a day earlier by around 1,000 Afghan clerics in a fatwa, or religious decree.
“The fatwa was more political than religious,” Kabul University lecturer Abdullah Awwab told Arab News on Friday.
“I think it was a smooth way out of the pressure put on them by Pakistan and mediators, who were asking for a fatwa against the TTP. The emirate couldn’t issue that, so instead they had scholars issue a fatwa for ordinary Afghans, banning them from jihad abroad.
“The fatwa shows Pakistan that the Taliban can use a fatwa to stop Afghans from joining the war. It demonstrates Kabul’s power and control over its own soil and people — and, at the same time, it shows Pakistan’s weakness in needing to ask Kabul for a religious fatwa.”
Addressing new graduates at a ceremony in Kabul, Muttaqi said the Taliban had not “permitted anyone to carry out military activities in other countries” and that the government had the right to take action against anyone who violated the directive.
“The leaders and elders of this Islamic emirate have pledged that Afghan soil will not be used to harm anyone. All the scholars and religious leaders affirmed that obeying this commitment is necessary for all Muslims,” he said.
“Just as this nation has historically acted upon the fatwas and advice of its scholars, so too will (it) act upon them now. This is our shared duty.”
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special envoy to Afghanistan, said the decree was a “very significant” development.
“Hopefully, the TTP, which owes allegiance to the Taliban’s Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, will now submit to the collective wisdom of the Afghan Taliban ulema and surrender arms,” he wrote on X.
Though the decree answers one of Pakistan’s demands, Afghan political analyst Wasi Baheer said it had “no direct impact” in the conflict.
“Pakistan’s harsh words and threats to Kabul don’t mean much, because the real issue is inside Pakistan,” he told Arab News.
“They cannot simply force changes in Kabul. The main reason talks collapsed in Qatar, Istanbul, and Saudi Arabia is that Pakistan demanded the Taliban act harshly against the TTP — which makes no sense, because it is an internal Pakistani problem. Using force here in Afghanistan will not bring any relief to Pakistan’s security.”
