Two men died and two women suffered severe burns today when a fire broke out on an overcrowded mega-dinghy bound for Britain.
asserted
fire → die → Britain
French rescuers looked on as the tragedy unfolded off the coast at Berck, south of Boulogne-sur-mer.
asserted
tragedy → look → Boulogne
Mass panic broke out among the 80 men, women and children onboard when an outboard motor appeared to catch fire because of a leak.
When the boat was around a mile into the English Channel, French rescue boats were in position, but were powerless to intervene.
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boats → break → position
The deaths came as another group of migrants were brought ashore at Gosport in Hampshire last night amid fresh protests.
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group → come → protests
The 149 migrants had left a beach in Normandy on Sunday morning before being accompanied by French rescue vessels to British waters, where they were picked up by the RNLI.
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they → leave → RNLI
They have now been taken by land to Dover to be processed.
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They → take → Dover
Police have responded to the prospect of further protests by setting up a dispersal zone covering the whole of Gosport.
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Police → respond → Gosport
The order means anyone gathering in the historic naval port who does not leave when instructed to do so by a police officer can be arrested.
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who → mean → officer
Hampshire Constabulary has also banned protesters from wearing face coverings to conceal their identity.
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Constabulary → ban → identity
Six people were arrested in Gosport last night.
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people → arrest → Gosport
Crossings continued today, with photos showing migrants boarding a packed dinghy at the beach at Plage d'Ecault near Boulogne in northern France
Migrants walk along the beach as a French official watches on
Jean-Marc Lamblin, skipper of the Berck lifeboat, watched the incident at Berck unfold this morning.
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incident → continue → Berck
He told the Voix du Nord [Voice of the North] news outlet: 'When we arrived, we counted at least 80 people on board, and there was a terrible smell of petrol.
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we → tell → petrol
The boat was overloaded, but the situation was calm to begin with.
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situation → begin → ?
People were happy to see us arrive –the boat was underway, and they knew they were going to be escorted [to Britain].
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they → see → Britain
'They were bailing out water using shoes - we're used to that.'
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we → bail → that
Mr Lamblin continued: 'At this stage of the operation, no one was asking for help.
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one → continue → help
The boat was moving forward, slowly.
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boat → move → ?
However, we noticed migrants taking the babies and children away from the centre of the boat, and moving them to the sides.'
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migrants → notice → sides
Within a few minutes people were screaming and shouting, and there were pleas for an immediate rescue.
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people → scream → rescue
Mr Lamblin said: 'There, among the people huddled in the bottom of the boat, we pulled out a young woman who had suffered severe burns to her lower body from a mixture of seawater and petrol.'
Two Somalian women aged 20 and 26 had been engulfed in flames, and one was 'weeping and in a state of total panic' because she had lost sight of her daughter, said Mr Lamlin, adding that the little girl was later found on dry land.
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girl → say → land
He said: 'Finally, we made one last approach.
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we → say → approach
That was when we pulled out two men in cardiac arrest.
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we → pull → arrest
'We performed CPR on them for 43 minutes on board, assisted by a nurse,' but they were soon declared dead.
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they → perform → nurse
Their names and nationalities have not been released.
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names → release → ?
Last week, a ten-year-old boy and two women were crushed to death in an overcrowded migrant mega-dinghy.
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boy → crush → dinghy
The child – who was Eritrean – suffocated in the disaster, alongside the adults, who were both in their 30s.
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who → suffocate → 30s
They had boarded the craft at Sangatte beach, Calais, in the early hours of last Monday, along with around 102 others.
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They → board → others
The flimsy dinghy, which was provided by people smugglers charging around £1000 per place, was only designed for 20 people, so soon started to sink in the water.
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which → provide → water
Some 10 others were injured on the vessel, which was described by the prefect as a 'water taxi'.
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which → injure → taxi
This meant it arrived relatively empty from an inland waterway, before picking up passengers from a number of beaches, including Wissant and Sangatte.
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it → mean → Wissant
French prosecutors have opened criminal enquiries into all the tragedies, and judicial police are investigating.
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police → open → tragedies
The latest deaths mean that at least 26 people, including women and children, have died in the Channel this year as they tried to get to Britain.
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they → mean → Britain
Many have drowned, while others have been crushed to death in overcrowded boats.
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others → drown → boats
The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
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dinghy → come → incident
Multiple attempts at crossings have taken place from the coast of northern France over the last few days, as the smugglers take advantage of calm seas and good weather.
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smugglers → take → seas
In total, almost 19000 migrants have reached England on dinghies since January.
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migrants → reach → January
The Aporia
