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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 3 May 2022
Despite UK clampdown bid, 100s cross Channel in small boats

By JILL LAWLESS The British and French gov-
Associated Press ernments have worked for
LONDON (AP) — Hundreds years to stop the journeys,
of people have crossed without much success, and
the English Channel in small have bickered over who is
boats in the last 24 hours, responsible for the failure.
British officials said Monday, Lawmaker Pierre-Henri Du-
after more than a week in mont, the French National
which none of the hazard- Assembly member for Cal-
ous journeys were reported. ais, said the Rwanda plan
The Ministry of Defense said would likely have little ef-
254 people arrived on the fect. "When you leave your
English coast in seven boats country because of war,
from northern France on because of starvation … at
Sunday, and more people least if you have a chance,
were brought ashore by you will try," he told the BBC.
British lifeboats on Monday. "We are going to the sum-
The crossings had all but mer so we will have less
halted since April 20, a waves and less danger for
few days after Britain an- the smugglers. So we will
nounced a plan to send have more and more peo-
some asylum-seekers to A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force ple going to cross."
Rwanda. But officials said vessel, following a small boat incident in the English Channel, Monday May 2, 2022. Relations between Britain
rough weather, rather than Associated Press and France have grown
the new policy, was the increasingly testy since
likely reason for the lull. it had struck a deal with it has been condemned by from the worst horrors in this the U.K, left the European
Thousands of people a Rwanda to send some asy- refugee organizations and world," the group said on Union in 2020. Enver Solo-
year try to cross one of lum seekers who arrive as human-rights groups, and Twitter. "When you're risking mon, chief executive of
the world's busiest ship- stowaways in trucks or on faces legal challenges. your life, what else do you Britain's Refugee Council,
ping lanes in dinghies and boats to the East African The government has also have to lose? When some- urged the British govern-
other fragile craft in hope country. The agreement passed a new law that one explains 'even death ment to have a "grown-up
of a new life in the U.K. says the migrants' asylum makes it an offence to wouldn't stop me' trying to conversation with France
More than 28,000 migrants applications will be pro- knowingly arrive in the U.K. get to the UK, it's clear that and the EU about sharing
entered Britain across the cessed in Rwanda and, if without authorization, a even the threat of Rwanda responsibility."
Channel last year, up from successful, they will stay move critics say amounts won't change anything." "We need a fair and hu-
8,500 in 2020. Dozens have there rather than coming to criminalizing refugees. Migrants have long used mane asylum system, with
died, including 27 people in to Britain. The charity Care4Calais, northern France as a means well thought-out,
November when a packed The British government says which works with migrants in launching point to reach long-term solutions that
boat capsized. the plan will discourage northern France, said many Britain, a destination fa- address why people are
In a dramatic — and, critics people from making the asylum seekers were de- vored by many for reasons forced from their homes,
say, illegal — move, Britain's dangerous journeys and termined to make the jour- of language or family ties, and provides them with
Conservative government will put people-smuggling ney despite the new rules. or because of Britain's per- safe routes to the U.K," he
announced last month that gangs out of business. But "Refugees have escaped ceived open economy. said.q

Death in Ukraine’s Kharkiv is

everywhere, rarely explained

By FELIPE DANA cles, visible to the Russian as the fighting shifts from
Associated Press drones that continuously village to village. Many,
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) buzz overhead. The door but by no means all, of
— The outskirts of Kharkiv to an apartment opens to Kharkiv's 1 million residents
have the feel of an open- three bodies inside. have fled.
air morgue, where the Precisely how any of this Associated Press journal-
dead lie unclaimed and happened will likely never ists saw the bodies formed
unexplained, sometimes for be known. into a Z, wearing the white
weeks on end, as Ukrainian Kharkiv, Ukraine's second- arm bands commonly used
and Russian forces fight for largest city, has been under by Russian soldiers, and
control of slivers of land. sustained Russian attack with some Russian medical A building heavily damaged by multiple Russian bombardments
There is the charred body since the beginning of the kits alongside. They were stands near a frontline in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 25,
of a man, unidentifiable, war in late February. With found on a front line where 2022.
propped on an anti-tank the Russian offensive inten- fighting had been taking Associated Press
barrier made of crossed I- sifying in the east, the Rus- place for days. They, along
beams outside a town that sian onslaught has grown with the burned man, were war crime, for disrespecting man with Ukrainian insig-
has been under the control fiercer. taken to a morgue on Mon- the dignity of the dead. nia turned out to have the
of both sides in recent days. Considered a strategic and day. There was no explana- Next will come the investi- identity papers of a Rus-
There are the dead soldiers, industrial prize, territory on tion for the Z formation — a gation into their identities, sian soldier. The apartment
apparently Russian, four of the eastern city's outskirts symbol of the Russian inva- maybe an attempt to no- where the three bodies
them arranged in a Z like has gone back and forth sion — nor the burned body tify family. were found had been bad-
the military symbol found between Russian and Ukrai- propped on the barrier. Ei- But even that is hard to ly shelled, but it wasn't clear
on Russian armored vehi- nian forces for weeks now ther could be considered a untangle. The body of a what killed them.q