Latest news with #smugglers
Geek Tyrant
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
The Top 3 Worst Jobs in the STAR WARS Universe Explored in Fun Comedy Sketch — GeekTyrant
The Star Wars galaxy may look cool from a distance with its lightsabers, hyperspace, John Williams score blasting in the background, but for the average worker just trying to make it to the weekend, it's a walking HR violation. Forget glamorous Jedi gigs or smuggler swagger. We're diving into the bottom of the galactic job board. Here are the three absolute worst jobs in the Star Wars universe, ranked by a mix of occupational hazard, bodily discomfort, and soul-crushing futility.
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Moment the French FINALLY try to stop the boats: Police slash rubber dinghy with knife but migrants say 'we're not afraid to die' in bid to reach UK as another 1,634 arrive in last week
A French police officer was seen single-handedly foiling an attempt by a group of people to cross the English Channel this morning in a dinghy by stabbing the inflated boat with a knife, as defiant asylum seekers say 'we're not afraid to die'. Video footage shows how a group of refugees and migrants aboard the boat were attempting to follow a short stream leading to the sea just metres away, watched by a group of French police. After facing criticism for standing around and even taking photographs of would-be migrants in previous weeks, police challenged the group and the boat came to a halt. One officer was then seen holding a sharp implement, believed to be a knife, and stabbing the sides of the boat to make it unusable. It comes after 1,634 people made the crossing in the last week. Images later showed the crumpled boat completely deflated with life jackets scattered around, as those on the boat left the scene and returned to a camp where they had been staying. One man who was waiting to cross the Channel said that despite the severe risks of making the perilous crossing across the world's busiest shipping lane, most will never stop trying to reach the UK. 'When you leave your country we can't go back we have to reach our goal,' he said. 'That's why when you take the money to the [smugglers] once, you have to go. If you want to go back they will take half of your money, that's why everyone tries to go. 'We're not afraid to die because there is a problem [at home], if we go there I'm dying. I have to reach my destination.' The boat filmed being stopped by police took a different tactic to most recent crossings, which have seen smugglers inflate the boat out at sea and those making the journey wading out to chest-height water before being pulled on board. This is an attempt to evade French police and border officers, who have only been able to intervene before refugees and migrants enter the water, unless they are rescuing someone who is at risk of drowning. Asylum seekers and the criminal gangs who exploit them have been taking advantage of the fine weather this week, with 27 small boats carrying 1,634 people arriving in the UK since June 14. On Friday, 437 people arrived on seven small boats with further crossings expected today on what is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far. Trips across the Channel have become far more deadly over time, with 73 people passing away while trying to reach the UK in 2024 - five times the number in 2023. It is thought this is due to ruthless smuggling gangs switching up tactics and heavily overcrowding boats, often forcing 80 people or more to cram into each dinghy. French authorities are reportedly set to introduce a new maritime doctrine from the beginning of next month which would allow police to intercept dinghies up to 300 metres from the shore. It comes after extraordinary scenes on Tuesday showed dozens of French police and coastguards looking on as men and women crammed onto an overloaded boat off Gravelines beach, near Calais. More than 50 police tried to stop as many as 200 migrants reaching the sea - and with the aid of teargas grenades stopped more than half. But those who dodged police simply waited for the so-called 'taxi boat' to ferry them across the Channel while police remained under strict rules to not apprehend anyone in the sea. The Prime Minister this week highlighted UK plans to slap travel bans and asset freezes on people-smuggling kingpins in talks with fellow world leaders at the G7 summit in Canada. He held one-on-one talks with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and Downing Street said afterwards that he 'raised the UK's world-leading work on people-smuggling sanctions'. Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokesman said Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron agreed during a meeting at the G7 in Canada that the Channel situation was 'deteriorating'. The pair both believe that 'migration should be a key focus' and they should 'continue to work closely with other partners to find innovative ways to drive forward progress', according to a No.10 readout. But French police unions are sceptical that the proposed measures can realistically implemented, due to limited means and human resources. "It's going to require quite a large number of boats, because we have to cover a strip of 300 metres along 180 kilometres so... this means aerial surveillance too," Alliance police union representative Julien Soir said, adding it would required allocating "hundreds of (additional) officers". This week, however, there was little sign of any deterrent in action as gangs who organise the crossings continued to outwit French police.
CTV News
20-06-2025
- CTV News
Greek coast guard says over 600 migrants rescued from 2 fishing boats
Frontex, foreground, and Greek coast guard vessels take part in a search and rescue operation off the coast on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas) ATHENS, Greece — More than 600 migrants were rescued overnight and early Friday from two wooden fishing boats found sailing kilometers from the southernmost part of Greece, the country's coast guard said. The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 30 nautical miles (35 miles, 55 kilometres) south of the tiny island of Gavdos, the coast guard said. Passengers were rescued by a ship from the European border patrol agency FRONTEX, aided by a coast guard patrol boat and four other vessels. The second was found 50 nautical miles (about 60 miles, 90 kilometres) south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board. The passengers were picked up by a passing Portuguese-flagged cargo ship. In both cases, the migrants were transported to Crete. There was no immediate information on the nationalities of those on board the two fishing boats. Another two boats carrying migrants were located in the same area on Thursday, the coast guard said. One, carrying 73 men, was found south of Gavdos and another with 26 people, including one woman and three minors, was found near the coast of southern Crete. The coast guard said those on the smaller boat told authorities they had set sail the previous evening from Tobruk in Libya, and had each paid smugglers either 4,000 euros (US$5,500) for their passage to Greece. Two Sudanese teenagers, one aged 16 and the other 19, were arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling after other passengers identified them as having been operating the boat. Greece has been on one of the preferred routes into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for decades. Arrivals from neighboring Turkey to the east and the Libyan coast to the south spiked last year, with Greece recording more than 60,000 people arriving — the vast majority by sea — in 2024, compared to just over 48,000 the previous year, according to figures from the U.N. refugee agency. As of June 15 this year, a total of 16,290 arrivals were recorded, with more than 14,600 of those by sea. With authorities closely patrolling the eastern sea border with Turkey to prevent migrant boats reaching nearby Greek islands, smugglers appear to be increasingly opting for the much longer and riskier Mediterranean Sea crossing from the north African coast to the southern tip of Greece, using larger boats into which they can cram more people. ___ Elena Becatoros, The Associated Press
Telegraph
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
People smugglers deploy new tactics to evade French police
People smugglers are using lorries to transport migrants to beaches in an attempt to outwit French border police and gendarmes. The gangs are putting dozens of migrants into the lorries along with a dinghy so that they can avoid detection by police spotters, drones and night-vision cameras when they are driven to the beaches for launch. Police and gendarmes have previously been able to track the migrants as they walked to the beach to hide in the dunes ready for the arrival of 'taxi boats', which are brought from further down the coast or inland rivers and waterways. The new tactics come ahead of plans by the French interior ministry for officers from the elite Compagnie de Marche to intercept the 'taxi boats' at sea. The strategy is expected to be ready in time for the Anglo-French summit in London starting on July 8. Until now, the French have refused to intervene in the water because they claim maritime laws prevent them from taking action that could put lives at sea at risk. Hidden in plain sight There have also been instances of gangs driving the dinghies to the shore by car before dumping the vehicle. It is thought this tactic reduces the chance of the boat being intercepted and punctured it before it can get into the sea. On Tuesday morning, smugglers drove a Volvo estate on to the beach with a dinghy strapped to its roof, which was swiftly taken off and launched into the sea. French police also discovered a dinghy buried in the sand. A source close to the French border force's strategic planning said: 'This week we failed to stop a departure that took us by surprise at Etaples, because it's apparently a new modus operandi that has been put in place; this involves delivering migrants in trucks with boats inside, so they are brought directly to the beach and the operation is carried out very, very quickly. 'So this time, unlike last time, we were unable to intercept the truck, which escaped our surveillance. We didn't detect it, so they departed from Étaples. There were around 30 migrants. They were taking water so it's far from sure whether they managed to cross.' 'We've had trucks with huge numbers of migrants inside, arriving at the last minute from far away. We can't stop all the trucks driving around there either. So this allows them to escape our vigilance.' Some 17,278 migrants have arrived so far this year, up 40 per cent on last year and the highest to this point in the year since the first arrivals in 2018. The source said the forecasts for crossings were 'favourable' through to at least Friday. 'Unfortunately, the smugglers have the same forecast as us, so we know what to expect,' they said. 'It has nothing to do with the weather; it's all about conditions at sea. The reason that we have seen more crossings and attempted crossings this year is that there have been more such windows of opportunity.' The source said the aim was to stop two thirds of the boats, although figures released last month suggested the number of migrants being stopped had fallen to fewer than 40 per cent. They added that the French were adapting their tactics to tackle the 'taxi boats', but said the length of the coastline and inland waterways from which they could be launched was so immense that it was difficult to cover. 'Faced with this situation, we are further adapting our measures, but it requires a lot of men and equipment as we have to follow migrant groups to check for nearby taxi boat,' they said. 'We can't just patrol the waterways; a boat can be hidden in the forest and arriving discreetly along the coast. Traffickers have understood that once a boat is in the water, we don't intervene under current maritime law.'
Times
18-06-2025
- Times
Smugglers find new ways to circumvent French police
People smugglers appear to be changing their tactics in response to a more aggressive approach by French police by driving dinghies to the shore and dumping the car. Over the course of the past two years, smugglers have increasingly pursued a so-called 'taxi boat' strategy whereby they use France's inland waterways to drive the dinghies before cruising along the coast to pick up migrants who are told to wade into the water to be picked up. This was to circumvent police patrols on the beaches, which used high-tech radar equipment provided by the British to detect boats hidden in the dunes along the coast. Smugglers would inflate the dinghies on the morning of the launches as migrants waited to board but after a 2023 deal with Rishi Sunak's government that significantly improved their detection equipment and led to two thirds of boats being stopped by the French police, the smugglers switched to the taxi boat model.
