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Europe
Iranian migrants steal French boat and sail to Britain, another boat sinks off Turkey
2018-11-14
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A group of Iranian migrants colonists stole a fishing boat from a French port and sailed across the Channel to Britannia, slipping past border officials to complete a journey attempted by thousands each year.

Seventeen migrants colonists, including three children, reached England early Tuesday aboard the fishing boat stolen from a French port near Calais, British officials confirmed Tuesday.

Britannia's Home Office, the interior ministry, said the group was intercepted at Dover harbor.

"Fourteen men and three minors, all of whom presented themselves as Iranian, were found on board," a front man said, adding that their asylum cases would be reviewed and that the minors had been referred to social services.

French prosecutor Pascal Marconville, who is leading the investigation into the theft, said the engine had been hotwired (started without a key) and that the migrants colonists managed to "escape the watch" of port authorities in making their getaway.

Every year, thousands of migrants colonists from Africa, the Middle East and Asia, many of them minors, attempt to reach Britannia by stowing away on trucks crossing to England, mainly through the French port of Calais.

For many the attempt ends in failure, with French police routinely detaining migrants colonists caught trying to climb onto trucks.

On Monday evening, French officials became suspicious after noticing a boat that was taking a "bizarre" route across the Channel, said Ingrid Parrot, spokeswoman for maritime authorities in northern La Belle France.

Officials tipped off British authorities and contacted the owner of the 12-metre (40-foot) boat, who said it had been stolen from the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, about 35 kilometers (21 miles) west of Calais.

Parrot called the crossing "unprecedented", noting that migrants colonists had previously used much smaller boats to try reach their journey's end, with little success.

So far this year French maritime officials have launched 23 operations either to rescue migrants colonists at sea or to stop groups about to set sail.

Ten Missing as Migrant Boat Sinks off Turkey

Ten people were missing on Monday after a boat carrying illegal migrants sank off Turkey's western coast, the Turkish coastguard said.

Two migrants swam to shore not far from the coastal town of Dikili in Izmir province after their boat sank, the coastguard said in a statement, adding that a search was underway for those missing.

Officials did not give details of the migrants' nationalities. Turkey hosts more than three million Syrian refugees and up to 300,000 Iraqis.

Separately, Turkish security forces rounded up 73 illegal migrants including Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans and Pakistanis in the northwestern Turkish province of Kirklareli, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.

The migrants were trying to reach Europe, it added. The Kirklareli region is on the border with Bulgaria.

Turkey has been a main transition route for migrants trying to get to Europe, especially since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

The number of migrants coming to Europe has declined since the influx hit a peak in 2015 when more than a million people landed in Greece from Turkey, mainly via boats.

Turkey and the European Union reached a deal in 2016 to stem the flow of migrants, with Ankara agreeing to take back migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid.
Posted by:Fred

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