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Another migrant boat spotted on English Channel day after mass-casualty wreck

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A day after 12 migrants died when their small inflatable ripped apart on a failed effort to cross the English Channel, several dozen others made another crossing attempt on a crowded vessel from northern France on Wednesday, as French patrol boats watched it labor through the seas.

That migrants were prepared to risk their lives so soon after a dozen others lost theirs trying to cross the busy waterway from France to Britain underscored the magnitude of the problem for the French and U.K. governments. It was the deadliest accident involving a migrant boat in the English Channel this year.

The mayor of Wimereux, a French coastal town where Associated Press journalists filmed the crowded inflatable boat on Wednesday, pleaded for French and British officials to do more to limit the number of migrants attempting the often perilous journey.

«Unfortunately, every day is like this for us. The smugglers — a criminal network — continue with insistence to send people to their deaths in the channel. It really is unacceptable, scandalous. And it is high time that a lasting solution is found with Britain,» Mayor Jean-Luc Dubaële said by phone.

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«Let’s ask ourselves the question: Why do they want to go to Britain? Because something is drawing them there,» he said. «They can ask for asylum in France. (But) none ask for the right to asylum in France. They all want to go to Britain. So it is high time that we sit around a table with the new British government.»

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Cross-Channel migration was a key focus in the U.K. general election in July, which the Labour Party won resoundingly to make its leader, Keir Starmer, the new prime minister.

A French prosecutor investigating Tuesday’s sinking, Guirec Le Bras, said 10 of the 12 dead were women and six of the victims were minors. Many appeared to be Eritrean, he said. The inflatable boat sank about 3 miles off the French coast, he said. Maritime authorities said many aboard didn’t have life vests.

Fishermen who recovered some of the dead said they were moved to tears.

«The bodies of two women were very young. That hurt me. I cried all day. I couldn’t stop,» said 53-year-old Samba Sy Ndiaye, who works aboard the Murex, one of two fishing boats that assisted the French rescue effort.

Another crew member, Axel Baheu, said the body of one young woman – he guessed she was between 15 and 20 – had a telephone in a waterproof pouch around her neck. It started to ring as he was pulling her out of the water and checking for a pulse, he said.

«That was hard because you know full well that no one will ever answer,» Baheu said.

His father, Jean Marie Baheu, said he saw another heavily laden migrant boat set off Wednesday in front of his house.

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«When the weather is good and there’s no wind, there are departures every day,» he said. «At the beginning, you’d see 20, 30 people. Now, it’s minimum 70, 80.»

A boat thought to be with migrants is escorted by a vessel from the French Gendarmerie Nationale off the Wimereux beach, France, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. A boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France on Tuesday, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead, authorities said. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)

The inflatable boat the AP saw and filmed on Wednesday was carrying migrants, French maritime authorities confirmed. AP journalists estimated that 40 to 50 people were aboard.

Many wore life preservers. A patrol boat flying a French flag approached the inflatable at one point and the crew tossed more life vests — about half a dozen — to the migrants.

The English Channel’s gray seas were comparatively calm, with small waves lapping the beach as people walked dogs on the sand.

Still, the inflatable appeared to make slow headway. Even though journalists filmed it for more than two hours, it remained clearly visible from shore, with the patrol vessel buzzing around it and a larger one shadowing it from farther away.

The French maritime agency that oversees that stretch of sea said the boats were monitoring the inflatable in case it ran into difficulty or people aboard requested assistance.

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In a statement to the AP, the agency said that although maritime law forbids the use at sea of makeshift inflatables, it’s too dangerous to force them back to shore when the boats are heavily laden.

«It’s difficult to achieve with more than 50 people on board who are vehemently refusing to be rescued. The main risk is a stampede on board and then a capsizing, these boats being neither stable nor reliable. The risk of loss of human life being too high for an intervention under duress, the choice is made to prioritize the protection of the people on board and by simply monitoring from a distance the navigation capabilities of these boats,» the statement said.

«It is therefore more a question of ethics than of blind application of the law,» it added.

By the U.K. government’s count, at least 21,720 migrants have managed to cross the English Channel so far this year. That’s 3% more than at the same stage last year, but 19% lower than during the same period in 2022.

The boat that ripped apart on Tuesday, plunging 65 people into the sea, was one of several crossing attempts that day. British authorities said at least 317 migrants succeeded, arriving aboard five boats.

One of the first measures the new U.K. government immediately enacted was to scrap the previous Conservative government’s plan to send some migrants arriving in small boats to Rwanda rather than being allowed to seek asylum in Britain. Human rights groups criticized the plan.

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Starmer called the plan a «gimmick» and wouldn’t act as a deterrent. Instead, his government has opted to divert some of the money saved from ditching the program into setting up a strengthened border force to «smash» the criminal gangs behind the small-boat arrivals.


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Crisis política en Colombia: ahora renuncia el ministro de Defensa y Gustavo Petro pierde a uno de sus colaboradores más leales

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El ministro de Defensa de Colombia, Iván Velásquez, renunció el martes a su cargo de manera “irrevocable” en medio de la reorganización ministerial que está impulsando el presidente Gustavo Petro luego de que quedaran al descubierto las tensiones internas en el gobierno en una inédita reunión televisada.

La dimisión fue informada en la red social X por el Ministerio de Defensa en un breve comunicado de prensa en el que no se detallaron las razones de su decisión.

Velásquez era el único ministro que se había mantenido en su cargo desde que Petro asumió en agosto de 2022 como el primer presidente de izquierda en gobernar Colombia. Había resistido al menos tres remezones ministeriales y tenía a su cargo la política de seguridad, clave en un país donde persisten los grupos armados ilegales.

El ministro de Defensa que dimitió tiene una larga trayectoria en la investigación de corrupción y estructuras criminales y presidió la Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala.

Su salida se da luego de que Petro pidiera el domingo a todos sus ministros y jefes de departamentos la renuncia protocolar para ajustar, según dijo, y lograr un mayor cumplimiento de su plan de gobierno. Sin embargo, antes de que pidiera la renuncia habían dimitido dos de sus altos funcionarios inconformes por las tensiones internas.

Gustavo Petro con su ahora ex ministro de Defensa, Ivan Velásquez, en una imagen de 2024. Foto: AP

Así como Velásquez, renunciaron dos ministras de la entraña del proyecto político progresista de Petro: las ministras de Ambiente, Susana Muhamad, y de Trabajo, Gloria Ramírez, del partido Comunista.

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El trasfondo de la crisis

Ambas manifestaron en sus cartas de renuncia o entrevistas a medios locales que estaban inconformes del rumbo que estaba tomando el gobierno. Muhamad fue explícita en decir que su salida se debe al nombramiento de Armando Benedetti como jefe de despacho presidencial.

Benedetti, quien fue la mano derecha de Petro en la campaña presidencial de 2022, ha sido cuestionado por un presunto caso de violencia de género y audios filtrados que señalan supuestas irregularidades en la campaña electoral con la que Petro llegó al poder. También fue acusado por presunto tráfico de influencias por la Corte Suprema de Justicia en una investigación relacionada con su supuesta intervención indebida en procesos de contratación en un fondo estatal.

El funcionario ha negado los cuestionamientos y también el delito de corrupción. Mientras que Petro lo defendió públicamente asegurando que todos merecen una segunda oportunidad.

La tensión queda al descubierto cuando Petro atraviesa el último tramo de su mandato, que debe terminar por ley en 2026, con el gran desafío de dejar un legado que le permita a la izquierda continuar en el poder.

Sucede también cuando lucha por lograr que sus ambiciosas reformas sociales al sistema de salud y de trabajo sean aprobadas por un esquivo Congreso en el que no goza de las mayorías.

Para Petro, el remezón ministerial tiene de fondo las salidas de quienes tienen aspiraciones para el próximo año de elecciones legislativas y presidenciales, que considera incompatibles con su desempeño en el gobierno.

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“Está todo listo, no hay de qué preocuparse, no va a ser tampoco un gran cambio de ministerios, muchos van a permanecer”, dijo Petro el martes a la prensa desde Emiratos Árabes. “Lo que hacemos es quitar las personas que tengan aspiraciones electorales, no es sano que se combinen… ya queremos separar esas aguas”, explicó.

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