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IMMIGRATION

Toddler among 26 migrants found in refrigerated lorry

Twenty-six migrants, including a two-year-old, were discovered in a refrigerated lorry at a ferry terminal near the northern French port of Dunkirk on Saturday, the emergency services said.

Published: 30 July 2017 09:05 CEST
Toddler among 26 migrants found in refrigerated lorry
A group of migrants attempt to board a lorry at a petrol station on a motorway in the direction of Dunkirk in May. Photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP

The toddler, whose Iranian mother was also in the lorry, was taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia after the migrants were found in the lorry early Saturday as they attempted to reach Britain.

“The ferry terminal security service contacted emergency services after the discovery of a group of 26 migrants in a refrigerated lorry,” the regional rescue services authority said in a statement.

The two-year-old, suffering from “mild hypothermia”, was taken to hospital in Dunkirk for treatment.

Migrants from the Middle East and Africa regularly attempt to reach Britain from France after having travelled up through Europe, smuggling aboard lorries about to cross the Channel by ferry or the Eurotunnel.

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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