Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
WIMEREUX: Five migrants, including a seven-year-old girl, died Tuesday trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain, local authorities said, just hours after Britain passed a controversial bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The British government has cast its Rwanda plan, which cleared a final hurdle in parliament on Monday to international criticism, as part of measures to deter migrants from making the perilous sea crossing and avert such tragedies.
The latest tragedy at sea off the northern French town of Wimereux brings to 15 the number of migrants who have died so far this year trying to reach English shores, according to an AFP tally.
That is already more than the 12 migrants killed in the whole of last year while making the crossing to seek a better future in Britain, according to official figures.
A seven-year-old girl, three men and a woman were killed on Tuesday in the latest accident in Wimereux, local government official Jacques Billant said.
The boat carrying 112 people, including Syrians and Iraqis, set off before dawn but the engine stopped just a few hundred metres from the beach and several people fell into the cold sea water, he said.
Rescue services rushed to help, but failed to resuscitate five people on the sand, Billant said.
Around 50 migrants were rescued and brought to the nearby resort town of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
But the others refused to disembark and chose to try again to cross the busy shipping lane, with the French navy accompanying them to make sure they did not capsize, Billant said.
On Tuesday morning, police had cordoned off the beach, an AFP journalist said.
Two ambulance helicopters were stationed nearby.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
