PUERTO ANTIOQUIA: France’s foreign minister vowed Saturday to “defeat” rapidly spreading drug trafficking in Europe, as he spoke to AFP on a trip to Colombia, a major narcotics producer.
Jean-Noel Barrot is in the South American country for a summit between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which will take place in the city of Santa Marta on Sunday and Monday.
Speaking in nearby Puerto Antioquia, a port terminal in northwestern Colombia where the powerful Clan del Golfo cartel operates, Barrot said France was “resolved to defeat trafficking of all kinds — not just in drugs — which raises public health (and safety) concerns.”
He said Paris would not sit by and watch “the explosion of drug trafficking in Latin America, in the Caribbean, and also in Europe, where we are now seeing not only drugs flooding in, but also traffickers moving around and setting up laboratories.”
“All of this must stop,” he said, adding that the French government planned to open a regional academy in the Dominican Republic that will train investigators and customs officers to help combat organized crime.
The training program, planned for next year, will take place in cooperation “with Colombia in particular, the (world’s) top cocaine producer,” Barrot said.
The EU-CELAC summit risks being overshadowed by no-shows and disputes, with Colombia accusing the United States of pressuring countries to skip the event.
Ties between Washington and Bogota have soured since US President Donald Trump ordered a military deployment in the Caribbean to combat a surge in drug trafficking that he has blamed partly on his leftist Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro.
Barrot repeated his “concern” about regional tensions, saying the US deployment had “disregarded the rules of international law and the law of the sea.”
French FM vows to ‘defeat’ drug trade on Colombia trip
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French FM vows to ‘defeat’ drug trade on Colombia trip
- Barrot said France was “resolved to defeat trafficking of all kinds, not just in drugs, which raises public health and safety concerns”
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
