Keir Starmer branded a ‘hypocrite’ as Channel migrant demise toll rises | Politics | News | EUROtoday

More migrants will die making an attempt to cross the Channel except ministers deal with the disaster as a “national emergency”.

A tiny child grew to become the 53^rd fatality this yr after one other boat sank on Thursday evening, plunging individuals into the water.

On Friday, each Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron confronted recent fury over the rising demise toll, with evaluation revealing extra migrants have perished this yr than within the final three mixed.

Tory management contender and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick mentioned: “We’ve seen extra deaths this yr than ever earlier than. Starmer is condemning individuals to demise for his personal ideology.

“Rather than strengthening the Rwanda scheme to deter people from making the journey in the first place, he scrapped it all because he didn’t come up with the idea.

“Now European countries are looking to do the same thing. It’s a national emergency and he’s playing politics with it.”

Sir Keir was also accused of hypocrisy after he signed a Rwanda-style deal to deport migrants who arrive in the Chagos Islands on small boats.

Asylum seekers arriving in the British-owned archipelago will be deported to St Helena, another UK territory more than 5,000 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr Jenrick added: “This is yet more rank hypocrisy from Starmer. He’s scrapped our Rwanda deterrent because of his petty party politics, with no regard for the damage small boat crossings cause our country.

“This Labour Government has shown it won’t put our national interest first.”

Former house secretary James Cleverly added: “The death of a baby in the Channel today serves as another stark reminder that small boat crossings are extremely dangerous and the evil people smuggling gangs must be stopped.

“The status quo is simply not good enough – and both the UK and French governments must redouble efforts to put an end to this”.

The little one was discovered amongst 65 UK migrants rescued from a flimsy dinghy off the coast at Wissant, near Calais.

The native prefecture mentioned in a press release: “Rescuers found that the boat, which was heavily loaded, was in difficulty and that some of the people were in the water.

“Rescuers started to recuperate the individuals in issue.

“At the same time, further searches were carried out to find people who could be stranded at sea.”

It was then that the newborn was found, the prefecture added.

On September 3, six kids and a pregnant lady have been amongst 12 individuals who died after a ship carrying dozens of individuals sank off the French coast.

And on October 5 a two-year-old little one was amongst 4 individuals who died after being “trampled” on the backside of an identical boat.

Guirec Le Bras, the Boulogne-Sur-Mer prosecutor, mentioned the newborn boy was born in Germany to a Somali mom.

An individual in the identical vessel suffered burns to their legs and was airlifted to hospital, Mr Billant mentioned, whereas the remaining passengers continued their journey to England.

In whole, 53 migrants have died crossing the Channel this yr. In 2021, 37 individuals drowned.

Last yr, 12 individuals misplaced their lives.

Responding to Mr Jenrick’s remarks, the Prime Minister’s deputy spokesperson mentioned: “The blame is firmly on the ruthless criminal gangs that exploit people into undertaking these dangerous journeys and that is why the Prime Minister’s primary focus is on smashing the gangs and stopping these journeys from happening in the first place.

“Cases such as this are terrible reminders of the callousness of the gangs exploiting people to make these journeys.

“It is very clear that we need to tackle them and the Prime Minister has set out a plan to do so including setting up our enforcement coordination with partners with countries across Europe and countries and also work upstream to tackle the problem at source.

“That is the approach we are taking.”

A complete of 27,557 individuals have arrived within the UK in small boats to date this yr after crossing the channel – 6% greater than the equal level final yr.

The whole variety of arrivals is 26% decrease than the identical level in 2022.

People continued crossing the Channel as arrivals have been introduced into Dover on Friday.

Enver Solomon, chief govt of the Refugee Council, mentioned: “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.

“As our analysis shows, these crossings are getting ever deadlier, with the total number of deaths this year being greater than the previous three years combined.

“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.”