A prisoner in France escapes in his cellmate's bag
Sébastien Cauwel, director of France's prison administration, told CNN affiliate BFMTV Sunday that the man 'took advantage' of the release of his fellow inmate to escape from the Corbas prison near Lyon, a city in the country's southeast.
Cauwel told the broadcaster that prison officials had noticed on Saturday morning that the man had escaped. He acknowledged an 'accumulation of errors,' noting that an investigation into the incident had been opened.
'This is an extremely rare event that we have never seen in this administration and which clearly shows a whole series of serious failures,' Cauwel said, noting that the Corbas prison is overcrowded.
The prison has an occupancy rate of around 170%, he told the broadcaster. 'That makes the working conditions of our officers more complicated.'
The inmate who escaped was serving several sentences, France's prison service said in a statement cited by European news agency AFP. He was also under investigation in a case connected to organized crime, AFP reported, citing an unnamed source close to the matter.
Last year, another prisoner in France escaped after gunmen ambushed a prison convoy transporting him to a jail in the northern region of Normandy. The fugitive, Mohamed Amra – also known as 'The Fly' – was rearrested in Romania in February this year, according to Reuters.
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On the beaches of northern France, exhausted police admit they've lost control
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The scenes are painfully familiar to any of the 1,200 gendarmes deployed along France's northern beaches. Some told The Telegraph they are outmanoeuvred and outnumbered by the smugglers, who who adapt their tactics at pace. 'We are helpless... there is a French expression 'donner de la tête', we are overwhelmed and don't know where to start, we don't know where to go, there are so many boats leaving,' says Marc Musiol, a French border police officer in Pas-de-Calais. One well-placed international policing source labelled the situation a 'failure'. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 22,360 arrivals via small boats into the UK – an almost 60 per cent increase on last year. The numbers are rising as Sir Keir Starmer promised to 'smash the gangs' and hailed a new deal with Emmanuel Macron to stem the tide. But authorities here suggest the 'one-in, one-out' pledge is not worth the paper it is written on. Some also pour scorn on Mr Macron for talking tough without following through with 'concrete' changes. The scene on the beaches of Gravelines on Thursday morning is one replicated along the coast of northern France day in, day out, when the weather permits. In the early hours, police patrol cars scour the 200km of coastline between the border of Belgium and the Bay de Somme estuary. Police use drones fitted with night vision technology to scan the dunes where the migrants, mostly young adult men, will camp for the night before they attempt to cross the Channel. But the distances make it easy for smugglers and migrants to hide from stretched authorities. Gendarmes drive beige 4x4s in teams of three, drive down the shoreline, and survey the waters for inflatable dinghies. 'We are here every night, it is always the same, it never changes,' one officer said as he patrolled a beach car park. 'The migrants are everywhere.' The Telegraph encountered six patrols in the space of two hours during a 3am drive from Calais towards Wimereux, a seaside commune south of Boulogne and another known hotspot for Channel crossings. Interceptions remain scarce. Smugglers launch simultaneous crossings from up to 10 different beaches at a time to divide police attention and resources. Pre-inflated dinghies are launched from waterways and canals dozens of kilometres from the pickup point and sail down the coast. The smugglers use weather apps, such as Windy, on their phones to help them plan their crossings. The apps provide up-to-the-second information on wind speed, direction, and the swell. Sentries linked to the smuggling gangs are posted in the dunes and near the camps to watch for the boats. They alert over the phone that the dinghy is arriving and that it is time for its passengers to get on board. Mr Musiol said: 'There are always small groups of smugglers who know our beaches very, very well.' 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He waded through the water as a 'taxi boat', already filled with 50 or so passengers, drew near to the shore. Sara and Karwan walked through the surf holding each other's hands, also clutching life jackets. Around them, smugglers bullied their human cargo into place. Alina and Mohammad were carried on the shoulders of smugglers and handed over to migrants already on board the boats, who hauled them in. They were followed by their mother and father, who sat in the centre of the flimsy dinghy. The passengers cheered and waved to those left behind on the beach and sailed, under a police escort, towards the UK. One of those left on the shore was Leo, a 25-year-old aspiring engineering student from Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan, who had paid smugglers €1,500 (£1,296) to ferry him across the Channel. He had hoped to join his sister, who had made it to the UK last week via a small boat and is living in Manchester. He said: 'I left because of the Taliban. 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4th detainee who escaped Newark ICE facility arrested in Los Angeles, FBI says
The last of four detainees who escaped from a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, in June has now been caught. Andres Felipe Pineda Mogollon, 25, was arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to the FBI. He and three others had escaped from the Delaney Hall ICE detention center on June 12. ICE told lawmakers the four detainees escaped through a hole in a wall of the facility. Two were taken back into custody within three days of escaping, and the third was captured on June 17. All four have now been captured. Mogollon was arrested previously on charges of petty larceny and residential burglary. Delaney Hall has been a source of controversy in New Jersey for months. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka claims the ICE facility opened without undergoing necessary inspections or acquiring proper permits, which the Department of Homeland Security denies. On May 9, Baraka and members of New Jersey's congressional delegation, including Rep. LaMonica McIver, went to Delaney Hall to conduct federal oversight and ended up clashing with ICE agents outside. The mayor was arrested and charged with trespassing, but the charge was later dropped. McIver was charged with assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement, and has pleaded not guilty. On June 12, detainees told family members they went without food for 20 hours, then were fed only a small amount. They also reported unhygienic conditions inside, while loved ones said visitation hours were inconsistent. DHS has said they provide high quality services.
