LILLE, France: Four migrants drowned in the Channel overnight off France’s northern coast while trying to cross to Britain, French maritime police said Friday.
A navy patrol boat went to the site off of Boulogne-sur-Mer after being alerted that several migrants had fallen into the sea, maritime police told AFP.
Four bodies were pulled from the water, but people were also rescued, the police added.
The UK’s new interior minister Yvette Cooper described the deaths as “truly awful.”
“Criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk,” she wrote on X.
“We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue & bring down dangerous smuggler gangs,” she added.
The UK’s Labour government on Saturday confirmed it was scrapping a plan to deport migrants to Rwanda in an effort to reduce the number of irregular migrants arriving on the country’s shores.
Since Labour’s general election win last Thursday, nearly 500 migrants have arrived in Britain on small boats, according to an AFP tally of official government figures.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to tackle the problem by smashing smuggling gangs.
The latest Channel fatalities take to 19 the number of people who have lost their life this year trying to cross over to Britain from France on often overloaded boats.
Five migrants died on April 23 off the French coast while trying to make the perilous journey.
A total of 12,313 people have made the crossing so far this year, according to Home Office provisional figures released in mid-June.
The figure is 18 percent higher than for the equivalent point last year, when the figure stood at 10,472.
France says four migrants drowned trying to cross Channel
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France says four migrants drowned trying to cross Channel
- A navy patrol boat went to the site off of Boulogne-sur-Mer after being alerted that several migrants had fallen into the sea
- The UK’s new interior minister Yvette Cooper described the deaths as “truly awful“
Zelensky visits Kupiansk as Ukraine retakes parts of frontline town
- “Today it is extremely important to achieve results on the front lines so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy,” Zelensky said
- Ukraine’s Khartiia Corps of the National Guard said it had liberated several northern districts of Kupiansk
KYIV: Ukrainian forces said they had retaken parts of the northeastern town of Kupiansk and had encircled Russian troops there as President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the area and praised the operation, saying it strengthened Ukraine diplomatically.
With US-backed peace efforts underway, Moscow has said it is advancing on all fronts and that it has seized Kupiansk and the strategic city of Pokrovsk in the east. Kyiv has denied this, saying that the fighting is continuing.
In a video clip posted on his social media account on Friday, Zelensky, wearing a bulletproof vest, is seen standing in front of a sign bearing the town’s name at the entrance to Kupiansk.
“Today it is extremely important to achieve results on the front lines so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy,” Zelensky said in the clip.
RUSSIANS IN KUPIANSK ‘COMPLETELY CUT OFF’, KYIV SAYS
Ukraine’s Khartiia Corps of the National Guard said it had liberated several northern districts of Kupiansk.
Russian supply routes have been cut off and several hundred Russian troops are surrounded, Khartiia said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
“Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off. For a long time, they couldn’t understand what was happening. But now they know they are surrounded,” Ihor Obolienskyi, Khartiia’s commander, was quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet as saying.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, did not immediately comment on the Ukrainian assertions.
Ukraine’s Deep State battlefield mapping project now shows at least three villages to the north and west of Kupiansk under Ukrainian control.
Kupiansk’s northern districts are also shown as being under Ukrainian control, and the map suggests Russian troops are encircled in the city center.
Military analysts said that in November, the pace of Russian advances had picked up to its highest this year as troops moved forward, taking control of smaller villages.
Russia said on Thursday it had captured the eastern town of Siversk. Kyiv said it remained under Ukrainian control.
