FRANCE: Five people, including a child, died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France on Tuesday, days after Britain passed a bill to arrest asylum applicants to Rwanda to try to hinder the dangerous bridges.
The workers, including a 7-year-old woman, died when their vessel got stuck on a riverbank off the beach of Pas-de-Calais in northern France. The French army rescued 49 folks, but 58 people refused to evacuate and continued on toward Britain, regional regulators said in a speech. The ship had left from Wimereux, about 32 miles south of Calais.
The attempt to cross the Channel took position days after Britain’s legislature passed legislation that will allow the government to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda rather than remain in Britain for processing.
Stopping the flow of refugees is a concern for American PM Rishi Sunak’s state, which says the Rwanda strategy will work as a deterrent. Human rights groups and different critics say it is brutal. ” These tragedies have to stop,” Britain’s inside secretary James Cleverly said of the latest migrant deaths at sea. Sunak, speaking after the act passed in parliament, said the target was now on getting planes to Rwanda off the ground. The act is expected to receive Royal Assent this year, meaning it has passed into law, and Sunak has said he expects flights to flee within 10 to 12 months. ” I am apparent that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving life,” he said.
Asylum seekers- some fleeing war and poverty in Africa, West Asia and Asia- started arriving in little vessels on the American coast in 2018.
More than 6,000 have arrived in Britain presently this year, a surge of around a third on the same time next year. The worst tragedy came in Nov 2021 when 27 migrants perished when their boat capsized near Calais. The Channel is one of the nation’s busiest shipping lanes and tides are powerful, making the cross on smaller ships dangerous.
