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IMMIGRATION

Migrants dies from burns in Channel Tunnel

Another migrant has died attempting to cross to the UK through the Channel Tunnel. Despite the migrants being told of the dangers, the victim attempted to enter the Channel Tunnel and was severely burned.

Migrants dies from burns in Channel Tunnel
The entrance to the tunnel where many migrants try to pass through to get to the UK. Photo: Denis Charlet/AFP

A migrant has died after being badly burnt while attempting to enter the Channel Tunnel in Calais in a bid to reach Britain, French officials said Monday.

“One of three migrants who were involved in the accident last week has died,” the northern Pas-de-Calais prefecture told AFP in a statement.

According to a migrant solidarity blog, the dead man was a 23-year-old Pakistani who succumbed on Friday to injuries he received on the night of July 13-14.

The three migrants had tried to board a ferry before entering the tunnel where they were hit by an electric charge.

The previous week, another migrant died in the Channel Tunnel.

In all, at least four people have died in and around the tunnel entrance in recent weeks, showing the risks incurred by migrants desperate to reach Britain.

Thousands of migrants are camped out around the port in the northern city of Calais, in the hope of climbing aboard lorries travelling to Britain on ferries or entering the nearby Channel Tunnel.

The migrants, whose presence has long caused friction between London and Paris, sometimes go to dramatic lengths to smuggle themselves into Britain, and have even been recorded trying to swim across the Channel.

In recent weeks, traffic through the Channel Tunnel has been repeatedly disrupted by protesting French sailors, as well as attempts by migrants to smuggle through the undersea passage.

The Eurotunnel company distributes pamphlets in nine languages near the tunnel to warn migrants of the risks involved in attempting to cross the Channel illegally.

Eurotunnel, which manages the Channel Tunnel and its vehicle shuttle services, also owns three ships that operate under the brand name MyFerryLink, which it bought from bankrupt French carrier SeaFrance in 2012.

SeaFrance crew members briefly blocked Calais port again on Monday angered by plans to sell two of the ships to rival ferry company DFDS.

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IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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