Photo credit: the Vanguard
Nearly 1,000 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats on Saturday, the highest number of migrants to cross the channel in a single day in almost three years.
Daily Mail.com reports that 973 migrants in 17 small boats crossed the Channel to the UK on Saturday. 4 people died in two incidents while making the journey.
It created a record-high 24 hours since November 12, 2022, when there were 1,214 arrivals.
The new wave of crossings means that the running tally of arrivals for 2024 – 26,612—has now overtaken the same point last year, when it was 25,330.
A two-year-old boy was trampled to death on an overcrowded boat off the coast of France whilst 90 migrants, crammed onto a small boat, were attempting to cross the English Channel on Saturday.
A woman and two women also died on Saturday while crossing the Channe in a separate incident. Rescuers found the three migrants at the bottom of a boat and saved several others who fell overboard.
It is believed engine failures caused the panic. Migrants rescued were from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iran.
Michel Barnier, France’s prime minister, said the country needs a stricter immigration policy. He said he would be “ruthless” with people traffickers who profit from human misery.
Yvette Cooper, the UK Home Secretary, described the deaths as “appalling” and said criminal gangs “do not care if people live or die – this is a terrible trade of lives”.
