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IMMIGRATION

Migrants scramble aboard Calais ferry, sparking police sweep

Migrants hoping to reach Britain scrambled aboard a cross-Channel ferry in the northern French port of Calais, sparking a vast police sweep of the ship, officials said Sunday.

Migrants scramble aboard Calais ferry, sparking police sweep
File photo: AFP

Some 100 migrants, trying to reach Britain, broke through the port's perimeter late Saturday, senior regional official Jean-Philippe Vennin told AFP.

“Around 50 of them managed to get aboard a ferry”, the “Calais Seaways”, which had just arrived from Dover, in England, he said.

At least 46 had been apprehended by Sunday morning, but several more were still on an outside catwalk attached to the ship's funnel and firemen were attempting to get them to come down, Vennin said.

“Firemen initially managed to get close to them but were unable to talk them down, a second attempt is underway,” the official said, adding that the operation was made difficult by strong winds and rain.

The migrants had managed to clamber aboard the Danish-operated DFDS ferry at night by using a maintenance ladder at high tide, he added.

“Two of the migrants fell into the sea and were quickly rescued by firemen,” Vennin said.

Police oversaw the offloading of vehicles arriving from Britain from the ferry before carrying out a top-to-bottom search of the ship.

The detained migrants were taken by bus to Calais police headquarters, Vennin said.

Cross-Channel ferry traffic was delayed overnight with at least two ferries having to hold stations at sea before being allowed into port.

Regular services resumed Sunday morning while the migrant-occupied ferry was displaced overnight so as not to obstruct other traffic.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Britain throwing even more money at security in Calais is not the answer

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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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