Child among four deaths in latest Channel-crossing tragedy

Four individuals, including a two-year-old boy, died during attempts to cross the English Channel seaway from France on Saturday, shortly after countries who are members of the G7 had agreed a plan to combat smuggling gangs, highlighting the ongoing risks faced by migrants in overcrowded boats.

French authorities reported multiple casualties after responding to two distressed boats that had engine failures, with one of those who died being a young Somali or Ethiopian boy.

France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described the incidents as a "terrible tragedy," stating that a boy had been "trampled to death," and emphasized that "people smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands".

In a social media post, he vowed to intensify efforts against "these mafias who are getting rich by organizing these crossings of death".

Jacques Billant, a senior official in the Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, reported that one of the boats involved was located off the coast of Boulogne-Sur-Mer, carrying nearly 90 people.

"A French rescue boat went to the scene and picked up 15 migrants, including an unconscious child," said Billant. The other occupants of the vessel continued their journey, according to the Agence France-Presse.

In a separate incident later on Saturday, three more people died near Calais, further along the coastline, to the north. The vessel had 83 people on board, and three of them were found unconscious, "probably crushed and suffocated," said Billant.

"Two new tragedies occurred at sea this morning. The toll is very heavy, since we deeply regret the death of four people: two men, a woman and a child," he later told reporters.

"We deplore the fact the traffickers take even greater risk with people's lives, not only adults but more and more families with children, babies to whom they sell a passage across a dangerous sea in an inappropriate vessel," Billant said.

The UK Home Office announced on Friday that G7 countries have jointly developed "a major new international plan to smash the criminal gangs responsible for smuggling illegal migrants into the UK".

The strategy's objectives include strengthening border security and safeguarding vulnerable migrants from exploitation, according to a Home Office news release. The agreement was the result of talks led by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper during the G7 interior and security ministers' meeting in Avellino, Italy last week.

The G7 Anti-Smuggling Action Plan will enhance law enforcement efforts through closer cooperation among G7 partners, implementing new joint investigative actions to target criminal smuggling routes and improving intelligence sharing for faster identification and disruption of dangerous networks.

Additional measures in the plan include sharing best practices for disrupting smuggling supply chains and seizing criminals' assets, collaborating with online platforms to remove content promoting illegal migration, and enhancing capabilities to monitor and anticipate irregular migration flows globally and regionally.

"The plan will help to increase both voluntary and enforced returns of migrants to countries of origin," said Cooper. "It aims to offer migrants more choices and improve the overall management of migration flows."

The plan's implementation in the UK will be led by the new Border Security Command, and will synchronize law enforcement and intelligence efforts with enhanced powers. Investigations will be coordinated with European counterparts and will benefit from new investment in technology, personnel, and covert capabilities.

Billant said total migrant deaths this year have reached 51, up from 12 in 2023, and noted the rescued migrants on Saturday originated from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq.

Cooper condemned the "terrible trade in lives". In a social media post on Saturday, she said: "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."