Iraqi baby migrant arrives in the UK after eight hours at sea
At least 40 migrants, including a baby who was less than a month old, reached the coast of Dungeness, Kent in the UK on Saturday.
According to the Daily Mail, eyewitnesses reported seeing increased activity from mid-morning, with the lifeboat arriving ashore at approximately 2pm. Among those who survived the perilous journey was a 16-day-old girl from Iraq.
French police stand and watch as migrants set off for Britain unchallenged https://t.co/84JetNpo3x
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 10, 2021
The migrants’ journey was merely observed by the French police from less than 100 yards away instead of intervening, as shown by footage released by Sky News.
The migrants are said to have “evaded” French security early in the morning, before making the nine-hour journey crossing the English Channel.
A group of approximately 10 officers allegedly stood idle as two separate groups of migrants piled onto inflatable boats that took up to 10 minutes to get their engines started.
French officials are said to be investigating patrol efforts on the French border in the wake of the footage, Sky News reports.
Dan O’Mahoney, clandestine channel threat commander for Border Force, said, as reported by the Daily Mail: ‘The government is determined to tackle the unacceptable rise in dangerous Channel crossings using every tool at our disposal, at every stage in the journey.”
Since the beginning of 2021, more than 17,000 migrants have succeeded in reaching the UK, which is double the figure for the whole of 2020, as figures show.
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