Channel deaths

British police yesterday arrested a man over the deaths of at least 27 people who drowned while trying to cross the English Channel in a dinghy last year. The UK’s National Crime Agency said Harem Ahmed Abwbaker, 32, was detained in the town of Cheltenham in southwest England after an investigation by UK and French authorities. He is accused of being a member of an organised crime gang that was behind the dangerous crossing. Only two people survived when the packed boat sank between France and England on November 27, 2021. Twenty-seven are confirmed to have died and four are still missing. Abwbaker is due to appear Wednesday at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court to face a French extradition request.