Child, 2, ‘trampled to death’ & three adults killed after overcrowded dinghies try to cross English Channel from France

A TODDLER was “trampled” to death and three adults died when overcrowded dinghies tried to cross the Channel yesterday.

The two-year-old child was found on a small boat with nearly 90 migrants reportedly crammed onto it on Saturday morning, French authorities said.

Regional prosecutor Guirec Le Bras said the child was "crushed" to death when the boat’s engine failed off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France.

French authorities said the child who died was born in Germany.

The mother, a 24-year-old woman from Somalia, was being treated by medics after the tragedy.

In a separate tragedy, another group of migrants had to be rescued off the coast of Calais after their boat suffered engine failure, causing mass panic.

Some people fell into the sea and had to be rescued, with two men and one woman, all aged around 30, discovered unconscious at the bottom of the boat.

Pas-de-Calais regional prefect Jacques Billant said they had "probably crushed, suffocated and drowned" in the water which had gathered in the vessel.

Those involved in the two attempted crossings were from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait, and Iraq.

Local prefect Billant told reporters today: “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.

";And yet migrants continue to take to the sea each time the weather conditions are favourable.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a post on X: “It is appalling that more lives have been lost in the Channel today, including a young child, as criminal smuggler gangs continue to organise these dangerous boat crossings.

“The gangs do not care if people live or die - this is a terrible trade in lives.

“I have been in touch with the French interior minister Bruno Retailleau today & we met in Italy at G7 this week to discuss our determination to increase cooperation & law enforcement to pursue & dismantle criminal gangs who undermine border security & put so many lives at risk.”

Ms Cooper’s French counterpart Retailleau said: “Today several people died trying to cross the Channel. A child was trampled to death in a boat. A terrible tragedy that must make us all aware of the tragedy that is unfolding.

“The people smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organizing these crossings of death.”

The latest tragedies mean that a total of 51 people have died trying to cross the Channel this year.

On Friday, after bad weather had halted crossings for four days, a total of 395 people made the dangerous journey across the Channel in seven boats.

It means a total of 25,639 migrants have arrived on small boats this year so far, compared to to 25,330 by the same time last year and 33,611 in 2022.

The deaths come just a day after Ms Cooper joined fellow G7 ministers to sign an agreement on smashing the gangs behind small boat crossings.

In the G7 Anti-Smuggling Action Plan, the seven nations confirmed their “determination to intensify our efforts to prevent, counter and eradicate organised crime groups engaged in migrant smuggling”.

New joint investigations are hoped to boost the work of Labour’s new Border Security Command, headed by Martin Hewitt, which is receiving £75 million worth of additional funds.

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