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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.

IMMIGRATION

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

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

Published: 20 September 2023 09:06 CEST
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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