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MIGRANT CRISIS

Syrian jailed in France over deadly migrant crossing

A Syrian national was charged and jailed on Sunday as part of an inquiry into a shipwreck in the English Channel last week that claimed the life of a migrant, prosecutors said.

This French Navy photo from August 12, 2023 shows a MSC Taku CPP British boat (L) and a Cormoran public service patrol boat of the French Navy taking part in a search and rescue operation following the sinking of a migrant boat off Calais
This August 2023 photo shows a MSC Taku CPP British boat (L) and a French Navy Cormoran public service patrol boat in a search and rescue operation after the sinking of a migrant boat off Calais. (Photo by Handout / Marine Nationale / AFP) /

The man from Syrian Kurdistan, born in 1993, was charged with manslaughter, unintentional injury, deliberate endangerment and aiding illegal entry and residence, said Saint-Omer public prosecutor Mehdi Benbouzid.

He is suspected of having piloted a boat carrying around 60 migrants, including children, a charge he denies.

A second man suspected of also piloting the boat is still being sought.

The boat left Oye-Plage, east of Calais, on Thursday night and capsized off the nearby commune of Gravelines.

One man died and two other passengers are missing, according to the regional maritime authority.

READ ALSO: One drowned in new Channel migrant tragedy: French officials

In a separate incident, the body of another migrant was found on the beach at Sangatte on Friday after a failed Channel crossing attempt.

A boat carrying around 70 people had gone to sea before returning “following engine damage”, according to the public prosecutor’s office.

Around 40 other migrants who intended to join the group had remained on the beach at Sangatte.

Police were present on the beach and intervened, and a 33-year-old Iraqi man was in police custody on Sunday as part of the inquiry, according to regional prosecutors.

“The suspect appears to have been involved in the crossing scene, but also incited a number of migrants to attack the police when the boat returned,” prosecutors said.

The cause of the victim’s death had yet to be determined.

On Friday alone, 292 migrants reached the UK after crossing the Channel in seven boats, according to the UK Home Office’s count. On Saturday, 55 migrants reached the UK in a single boat.

As of late November, more than 28,000 people have crossed the Channel since the start of this year, according to British government statistics, compared with almost 46,000 over the whole of last year.

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FRANCE AND UK

King Charles III says on D-Day ‘nations must stand together to oppose tyranny’

British King Charles III at a D-Day commemoration in France on Thursday gave a speech in French in which he called for unity as he marked 80 years since the Allied landings in Normandy that changed the outcome of World War II.

King Charles III says on D-Day 'nations must stand together to oppose tyranny'

In the French town of Ver-sur-Mer, he paid homage to fallen Allied soldiers, French civilians who lost their lives and the courage of members of the French resistance.

“It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them, and all those who served at that critical time,” he said.

“We recall the lesson that comes to us, again and again, across the decades: Free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny,” he said.

“Let us pray such sacrifice need never be made again.”

He said he had been honoured to meet so many veterans over the years and hear their testimonies while they were still alive.

“Our ability to learn from their stories at first hand diminishes,” he said.

“But our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish.”

Turning to French, he paid homage to what he called the “greatest tragedy of the landings: the unimaginable number of civilians who died in this joint battle for freedom”.

He also saluted the “incredible courage and sacrifice of the men and women of the French resistance”.

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