Attempts to Cross the English Channel on Small Boats Leave 4 Migrants, Including a Child, Dead

Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)
Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)
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Attempts to Cross the English Channel on Small Boats Leave 4 Migrants, Including a Child, Dead

Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)
Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)

French authorities said four migrants, including a 2-year-old child, died Saturday in two separate incidents as they attempted to cross the English Channel toward Britain.

France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau deplored a “terrible tragedy" on X, saying that the child “was trampled to death in a boat."

“The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands,” Retailleau added, saying his newly-appointed government is to “intensify the fight against these mafias who make money from these deadly crossings.”

Saturday’s deaths come as a series of shipwrecks made 2024 the deadliest in recent years on the English Channel. Last month, 12 people died after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel. About two weeks later, eight migrants died in a similar crossing attempt.

In a news conference, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, said rescuers found the 2-year-old child dead onboard a migrant boat that had called for assistance Saturday morning.

Fourteen other migrants picked up on board the rescue boat were brought back to France to be interviewed by the border police and a 17-year-old was brought to a hospital in the port city of Boulogne-sur-Mer as he suffered from burns to his legs, Billant said.

Other people on the migrant boat who refused to be rescued continued their journey toward Britain, he said.

“To make money and with no regard for human life, networks of smugglers put people at ever greater risk,” including families with children, “literally leading them to accident and death,” Billant said.

Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, said the child, who appears to have been crushed in a jostling on the boat, was born in Germany from a 24-year-old Somalian mother.

In a separate incident, Billant, the prefect, said rescuers found three migrants dead and saved several others as they fell off a small boat overloaded with 83 passengers amid “panic and stampede."

Those dead “were probably crushed" and “have choked ... and drowned in the 40 centimeters (16 inches) of water at the bottom of the inflatable boat,” he said.

They were two men and a woman, the three of them aged about 30, he said.

Migrants that rescuers took care of Saturday came from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq, Billant listed.

The prosecutor said investigations have been open on both incidents.

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north.

Before Saturday's events, French authorities said at least 46 migrants had died while trying to cross to the UK this year.



Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
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Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake rattled buildings on Vanuatu's main island early Sunday but did not appear to have caused major damage, five days after a more powerful quake wreaked havoc and killed 12 people.

The nation's most populous island, Efate, is still reeling from the deadly 7.3-magnitude temblor on Tuesday, which toppled concrete buildings and set off landslides in and around the capital of Port Vila.

The latest quake occurred at a depth of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and was located some 30 kilometers west of the capital, which has been shaken by a string of aftershocks.

No tsunami alerts were triggered when the temblor struck at 2:30 am Sunday (1530 GMT Saturday).

Port Vila businessman Michael Thompson told AFP the quake woke his family.

"It gave a better bit of a shake and the windows rattled a little bit, it would have caused houses to rattle," he said.

"But you know, no movement other than a few inches either way, really. Whereas the main quake, you would have had like a meter and a half movement of the property very, very rapidly and suddenly.

"I'd describe this one as one of the bigger aftershocks, and we've had a fair few of them now."

Thompson said there was no sign of further damage in his immediate vicinity.

The death toll remained at 12, according to government figures relayed late Saturday by the United Nations' humanitarian affairs office.

It said 210 injuries had been registered while 1,698 people have been temporarily displaced, citing Vanuatu disaster management officials.

Mobile networks remained knocked out, making outside contact with Vanuatu difficult and complicating aid efforts.

In addition to disrupting communications, the first quake damaged water supplies and halted operations at the capital's main shipping port.

The South Pacific nation declared a seven-day state of emergency and a night curfew following the first quake.

It announced Saturday it would lift a suspension on commercial flights in an effort to restart its vital tourism industry.

The first were scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Rescuers Friday said they had expanded their search for trapped survivors to "numerous places of collapse" beyond the capital.

- Still searching -

Australia and New Zealand this week dispatched more than 100 personnel, along with rescue gear, dogs and aid supplies, to help hunt for trapped survivors and make emergency repairs.

There were "several major collapse sites where buildings are fully pancaked", Australia's rescue team leader Douglas May said in a video update on Friday.

"We're now starting to spread out to see whether there's further people trapped and further damage. And we've found numerous places of collapse east and west out of the city."

Thompson said power had been restored to his home on Saturday but said many others were still waiting.

"We're hearing a lot of the major businesses are still down, supermarkets are trying to open back up," he said.

"So this is very different to what's happened with disasters here in the past.

"Cyclones destroy everything outside, whereas earthquakes really destroy a lot of infrastructure inside the buildings."

Vanuatu, an archipelago of some 320,000 inhabitants, sits in the Pacific's quake-prone Ring of Fire.

Tourism accounts for about a third of the country's economy, according to the Australia-Pacific Islands Business Council.