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IMMIGRATION

‘Bizarre and unprecedented’: Migrants reach Britain in stolen French fishing boat

Twelve migrants have managed to reach the English coast after crossing the Channel in a stolen French fishing boat, using what authorities said Tuesday was a "unprecedented" means of getting to Britain.

Published: 13 November 2018 13:02 CET
'Bizarre and unprecedented': Migrants reach Britain in stolen French fishing boat
Ilustration photo: Fishing boat in the English Channel, AFP
French agents monitoring the coastline alerted their British counterparts after seeing a boat that was taking a “bizarre” route between 9.30pm and midnight on Monday, said Ingrid Parrot, spokeswoman for maritime authorities in northern France.
   
Officials identified the 12-metre (40-feet) boat and contacted its owner, who said the vessel had been stolen from the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
   
Agents from Britain's Border Force intercepted the migrants on land around 1am after they crossed in calm waters, according to French authorities. 
   
“It's an unprecedented method,” Parrot said, noting that previous migrants had previously used rafts or small sailboats unfit for Channel crossings.
   
Britain's coastguard confirmed it had assisted the Border Force but British authorities had yet to confirm details of the incident, including the nationality of the migrants or where they had landed.
   
French police are investigating the theft of the boat.
 
French authorities intercepted migrants in the English Channel 23 times in 2016 and 12 times in 2017.
   
So far this year French maritime officials have again launched 23 operations, either to rescue migrants in the Channel or to stop groups about to set sail.
   
Many of the African and Asian migrants who travel to France in the hope of reaching Britain continue to attempt to stow away on trucks crossing the Channel at Calais and other ports.
   
Last month, French authorities cleared 1,800 people, most of them Iraqi Kurds, from a makeshift camp near the port of Dunkirk.

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CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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