EU plane to monitor migrants on Channel shores after deaths

CALAIS, France (AP) — The EU’s border agency will dispatch a plane to monitor the shores of the English Channel for migrant boats after 27 died last week when their smuggling boat sank en route to Britain. European migration officials agreed on the new deployment at an emergency meeting Sunday in the northern French port of Calais. They also pledged to step up cooperation against migrant smuggling networks. Britain was notably absent from the meeting, because Wednesday’s sinking prompted a new political crisis between Britain and France. The neighbors accuse each other of not doing enough to deter people from making the treacherous journey.