LONDON (Reuters) – British police said on Thursday they had arrested an additional individual over the deaths of five migrants, including a child, who died attempting to cross the Channel from France on a small boat earlier this week.
The deaths occurred when a boat carrying 112 people set out to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world on Tuesday, and panic took hold among the passengers not far from the shore.
The 18-year-old from Sudan was arrested on Wednesday evening in Kent, southeast England, on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Three other men have also been arrested in connection with the fatal crossing, but one of these, a 19-year-old from Sudan, has since been released without charge and will be dealt with by immigration officials, the NCA said.
The two other men, both aged 22 from Sudan and South Sudan, were still being held in police custody.
Official figures show 402 people arrived in Britain on Tuesday in seven boats, taking the total of cross-Channel arrivals this year to more than 6,500.
The deadly crossing on Tuesday took place just hours after the British parliament passed a bill paving the way for asylum seekers who arrive in Britain without permission to be deported to Rwanda, a policy which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak argues will deter people from making the dangerous journey.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; editing by Michael Holden)
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