Prosecutors in France have launched a criminal investigation into the death of a baby pulled from the English Channel on Thursday night after an overloaded boat carrying migrants got in to trouble off the northern coast, southeast of Calais. File photo by Tolga Akmen/EPA-EFE
French prosecutors opened a criminal investigation Friday into the death of a baby pulled from the English Channel after an overloaded boat carrying migrants capsized off the northern coast of France, southeast of Calais.
Authorities launched a major air-sea-rescue operation Thursday night involving the French Navy and a helicopter when the small vessel began sinking, rescuing 65 people. The baby was found unconscious in the water as rescuers scoured the area for more victims. Advertisement
A helicopter bringing paramedics landed aboard the French government rescue vessel, the Minck, but the child was declared dead. The remaining 65 survivors were brought ashore at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
They were among 132 people rescued from a number of small boats that put out SOS messages on Thursday evening, according to a spokesperson for the Channel and North Sea prefecture in France.
“Rescuers found that the boat, which was heavily loaded, was in difficulty and that some of the people were in the water. Rescuers began to recover the people in difficulty,” the local prefecture said in a statement. Advertisement
It was during further searches “carried out to find people who could be stranded at sea” that the infant was discovered.
The latest incident comes two weeks after a 2-year-old boy was “trampled to death” and three other migrants died as they attempted the crossing aboard overcrowded small inflatable dinghies.
The boy was found unconscious on one of the boats during an Oct. 5 rescue operation in which 15 other migrants were plucked from one of the boats off Calais, according to the French Maritime Prefecture in La Manche, Normandy.
Resuscitation efforts aboard a specialist rescue ship by paramedics from France’s mobile emergency and maritime resuscitation service who were flown in by military helicopter were unsuccessful.
The boy was reported to have been fatally asphyxiated during a stampede aboard the dinghy, which was crammed with almost 90 people, according to Pas-De-Calais Prefect Jacques Billant.
Migrant support organizations criticized political leaders for failing to allow what they said were preventable deaths of migrants attempting to cross the Channel — at least 53 so far this year alone — and demanded they provide alternative ways for them to reach Britain to claim asylum.
“We are heartbroken that a baby has died in yet another devastating and depressingly preventable tragedy in the Channel. People who make the crossing are fleeing war, conflict and persecution and simply want to be safe,” said Refugee Council CEO Enver Solomon. Advertisement
“This procession of death and tragedy shows we need to rethink our approach. Lives will continue to be lost if we carry on as it is.”
Solomon said his group’s analysis showed the crossings were becoming ever deadlier with the number of people killed exceeding the total in all of 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The Migrant Voice charity said politicians’ “thoughts and prayers” every time one of these tragedies occurred would not stop the dying.
“Nobody risks their life or their baby’s life if they see another option. We need policies which make it safer and simpler for people to claim asylum,” the group told The Guardian.
The charity Women for Refugee Women said it was thinking of the family members of the baby and everybody else who was aboard the stricken boat.
“These tragic deaths are preventable. We need safe routes now.”
