A migrant has been found dead on a beach near Calais, northern France, the third person in a week to die attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats.
The person was found on the beach of Wissant on Thursday, with a water-filled boat nearby, said French officials.
Two people suffering from hypothermia were taken to hospital.
Hundreds daily have continued to attempt to cross one of the world’s busiest waterways to reach Britain, despite the increasingly cold weather.
Crossings can take hours, with most small boats intercepted by border officials during the journey across the Channel, which measures just 33 kilometres at its narrowest point.
Another migrant died while attempting the crossing on Wednesday, after being pulled unconscious from the water, while a third is missing, feared dead.
Hundreds more migrants were rescued this week by British and French authorities during a mass attempted crossing.
French police were so overwhelmed that they wrapped rescued children in blankets and put them in the boots of police vehicles while they tried to work out what to do with them, according to local reports.
Three people are feared to have drowned last week after their boat went off course during the attempt to reach Britain.
Separately, a train struck and killed a migrant from Eritrea who was among a group of migrants walking along the tracks, near Calais.
The issue of small boat crossings is a hot political topic on both sides of the Channel with political leaders trading barbs over who is to blame.
More than 21,000 people have attempted to make the crossing this year – a record and more than double the figure of last year.
At least 853 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK on small vessels on Wednesday.
Police have linked the switch to small boat crossings to tightened security at Channel ports – which has made it more difficult for migrants to travel to England hidden in vehicles – and criminal gangs exploiting the desperation of thousands seeking a new life in the UK.
Most still arrive in lorries but police say that the gangs have identified high profits for little initial outlay by buying unseaworthy small boats with underpowered motors and filling them with fee-paying migrants.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel told Parliament this week that 70 per cent of those who tried to cross by small boat were single men who “are effectively economic migrants. They are not genuine asylum seekers.
“These are the ones who are elbowing out the women and children, who are at risk and fleeing persecution,” she said.
Ms Patel has previously promised to make the small boat crossings an “infrequent phenomenon” and make it financially unviable for smugglers.
But she has failed to limit the increase, despite striking deals with France on border security that has cost the UK tens of millions of pounds.
The mayor of Calais blamed the UK for fuelling the crisis because it had failed to tighten its laws to dissuade migrants from travelling.
“We know that a migrant who arrives in England is taken care of. They are housed, they have an income,” Natacha Bouchart told The Telegraph. “For them, England remains an El Dorado, but the British Government does not have the courage to review its legislation in the field.”
The Calais authorities face strong opposition to their own policies for targeting the makeshift camps of migrants attempting to reach Britain. Rights groups have criticised the use of pepper spray against migrants and the seizure of their belongings.
Three people, including a Catholic priest, are on hunger strike over police tactics in the region to seize tents and sleeping bags to prevent the build-up of informal camps near the coastline.
Rights group Utopia 56 said campaigners attempted to block a police operation to remove an informal camp in Calais on Thursday. The campaigners want a halt to the evictions for five months during winter.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
Jawan
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India Test squad
Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill
Changing visa rules
For decades the UAE has granted two and three year visas to foreign workers, tied to their current employer. Now that's changing.
Last year, the UAE cabinet also approved providing 10-year visas to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least Dh10 million, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 per cent of the total. Investors can bring their spouses and children into the country.
It also approved five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams.
The government also said that leading academics, medical doctors, scientists, engineers and star students would be eligible for similar long-term visas, without the need for financial investments in the country.
The first batch - 20 finalists for the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinction.- were awarded in January and more are expected to follow.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
More coverage from the Future Forum
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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'Falling%20for%20Christmas'
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: CVT
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 220Nm
Price: Dh98,900
THE DEALS
Hamilton $60m x 2 = $120m
Vettel $45m x 2 = $90m
Ricciardo $35m x 2 = $70m
Verstappen $55m x 3 = $165m
Leclerc $20m x 2 = $40m
TOTAL $485m
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5