CALAIS, France: A two-year-old child was crushed to death and several adult migrants died in two separate tragedies overnight when their overcrowded boats tried to cross the Channel to Britain, French officials said Saturday.
The child was found in an overloaded dinghy when migrants issued a call for assistance on Saturday morning. The boat was carrying nearly 90 people and suffered engine failure off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France.
Citing initial information, regional prosecutor Guirec Le Bras said the child was “crushed” to death.
Fourteen other migrants were picked up by French authorities including a 17-year-old teenager who had to be hospitalized with burns to his legs, officials said. The other passengers continued their journey.
French authorities say they seek to stop people taking to the water but do not intervene once they are afloat except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.
Another boat overcrowded with migrants also suffered engine failure off the coast of Calais, leading to panic. Some migrants fell into the sea and were rescued.
Three people — two men and a woman aged around 30 — were then discovered unconscious at the bottom of the boat, Pas-de-Calais regional prefect Jacques Billant told reporters.
The three were “probably crushed, suffocated and drowned” in the water at the bottom of the boat, added the prefect.
The interior ministers of France and Britain condemned the “appalling” tragedies.
“A child was trampled to death in a boat,” France’s hard-line interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said on X, adding that several other people had died in the “appalling tragedy.”
“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 organizing these deadly crossings,” Retailleau added.
British Interior Minister Yvette Cooper struck a similar note.
“It is appalling that more lives have been lost in the Channel today, including a young child, as criminal smuggler gangs continue to organize these dangerous boat crossings,” she said.
“The gangs do not care if people live or die — this is a terrible trade in lives.”
Cooper said on X she was in touch with Retailleau, adding the two met this week to discuss “our determination to increase cooperation and law enforcement to pursue and dismantle criminal gangs.”
The latest tragedies bring to 51 the number of migrants who have died attempting to reach England from France so far this year, according to Billant.
Channel crossings to Britain by undocumented asylum seekers have surged since 2018 despite repeated warnings about the perilous journey. The Channel has heavy maritime traffic, icy waters and strong currents.
Migrants sometimes get crushed or trampled to death in overcrowded boats.
In July, a 21-year-old woman from Kuwait was crushed to death in a migrant boat off the French coast.
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 tragedies come 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 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.
Britain’s 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.
Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
https://arab.news/cux53
Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- The child was found in an overloaded dinghy when migrants issued a call for assistance on Saturday morning
- The boat was carrying nearly 90 people and suffered engine failure off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France
US and Ukraine ‘a lot closer’ on peace deal, Trump says after meeting with Zelensky
- Zelensky sees agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine
- Hurdles to a comprehensive peace deal remain
- Trump spoke with Putin ahead of meeting on Sunday
PALM BEACH, Florida: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, though both leaders acknowledged that some of the thorniest details remain unresolved.
The two leaders spoke at a joint press conference late Sunday afternoon after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump said it will be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will succeed.
Zelensky said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine has been reached. Trump was slightly more cautious, saying that they were 95 percent of the way to such an agreement, and that he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of that effort with US backing.
Zelensky has said previously that he hopes to soften a US proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, a Russian demand that would mean ceding some territory held by Ukrainian forces.
Both Trump and Zelensky said on Sunday the future of the Donbas had not been settled. “It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue,” Trump said.
Just before Zelensky and his delegation arrived at Trump’s Florida residence, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a call described as “productive” by the US president and “friendly” by Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.
Ushakov, in Moscow, said Putin told Trump a 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would prolong the war. The Kremlin aide also said Ukraine needs to make a decision regarding the Donbas “without further delay.” And he said the Russian government had agreed to establish working groups to resolve the conflict that will focus on economic and security concerns.
Meeting follows Russian attacks on Kyiv
Zelensky arrived at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday afternoon, as Russian air raids pile pressure on Kyiv. Russia hit the capital and other parts of Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday, knocking out power and heat in parts of Kyiv. Zelensky has described the weekend attacks as Russia’s response to the US-brokered peace efforts, but Trump on Sunday said he believes Putin and Zelensky are serious about peace.
The US president said he will call Putin again after meeting with Zelensky. Zelensky had previously told journalists he plans to discuss the fate of the contested Donbas region with Trump, as well as the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and other topics.
Russia claims more battlefield advances
Putin said on Saturday Moscow would continue waging its war if Kyiv did not seek a quick peace. Russia has steadily advanced on the battlefield in recent months, claiming control over several more settlements on Sunday.
While Kyiv and Washington have agreed on many issues, the issue of what territory, if any, will be ceded to Russia remains unresolved. While Moscow insists on getting all of the Donbas, Kyiv wants the map frozen at current battle lines.
The US, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the area, although it remains unclear how that zone would function in practical terms.
US negotiators have also proposed shared control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Power line repairs have begun there after another local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the agency said on Sunday.
Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has taken control of about 12 percent of its territory, including about 90 percent of the Donbas, 75 percent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.
Putin said on December 19 that a peace deal should be based on conditions he set out in 2024: Ukraine withdrawing from all of the Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and Kyiv officially renouncing its aim to join NATO. Zelensky’s past encounters with Trump have not always gone smoothly, but Sunday’s meeting follows weeks of diplomatic efforts. European allies, while at times cut out of the loop, have stepped up efforts to sketch out the contours of a post-war security guarantee for Kyiv that the United States would support.
On Sunday, ahead of the Mar-a-Lago visit, Zelensky said he held a detailed phone call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump and Zelensky will hold a phone call with European leaders at some point during the Florida meeting, Trump said. The 20-point plan was spun off from a Russian-led 28-point plan, which emerged from talks between US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and which became public in November.
Subsequent talks between Ukrainian officials and US negotiators have produced the more Kyiv-friendly 20-point plan.
