More than 600 migrants crossed the Channel just a day after baby died making the perilous journey – as father tells how she slipped from his hands when dinghy capsized,
Over 600 migrants crossed the Channel only a day after a baby tragically died whilst making the risky journey.
Maryam Bahez was believed to have been born as her family travelled from Iraqi Kurdistan through Europe with the hopes starting a new life in Britain.
However the 40-day old baby tragically died when an overloaded migrant boat travelling across the Channel sank off the French coast on Thursday night.
The child was being held in a black bin bag in a bid to keep her dry from the choppy waters, but tragedy struck when the dingy started sinking only 100m into the journey.
Her heartbroken father Aras has revealed the moment his daughter slipped through his fingers into the water as others began to topple upon them.
‘Our feet were in the water, we all told the (driver) to please turn around, but he did not listen to anyone and just sailed,’ he told Sky News.
‘Then the water got to my waist, my trousers were submerged, then the dinghy burst and I don’t how it happened but everyone fell on top of each other, and on top of me and my little girl.’
‘She went into the water but I brought her up, then a few others fell on us and then she went into the water.
‘I brought her up for the second time, then others fell on me and then she slipped from my hand, and fell in the water the third time, and I lost her.’
Sixty five people were rescued but sadly the baby ‘was found unconscious and sadly declared dead’, French maritime authorities said.
The day following the infant’s death 647 migrants made the crossing in 10 boats, according to new figures from the Home Office.
More than 28,000 people are now believed to have crossed the Channel this year alone, almost eight per cent higher than at the same point last year.
At least 53 people have died making the crossing in what has been described as the deadliest year for crossing so far, according to Sky News and the BBC.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said there had been more deaths this year than in the previous three years combined.
He said: ‘This procession of death and tragedy shows we need to rethink our approach. Lives will continue to be lost if we carry on as it is.’
But the growing deadliness of the Channel does not appear to have deterred people from attempting the crossing to Kent.
Since Labour came to power, 14,630 people have made the crossing, almost exactly the total for the same period last year and 10,000 fewer than the same period in 2022.
