Two migrants trying to reach Britain by boat died in the Channel off the northern coast of France on Sunday, French maritime authorities said.
The new drownings near the French city of Calais mean nine people have lost their lives attempting the dangerous sea crossing this month alone, and 25 since the start of the year.
Maritime authorities said a boat was in distress at sea between Calais and Dunkirk on Sunday morning and “two people were presumed dead”.
Jacques Billant, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais department, said there were 56 migrants on board the ship that ran aground 10 kilometres (6 miles) north of Calais.
He said five of the 54 survivors and 50 others rescued from another boat were receiving medical care.
According to French authorities, in 2023, 12 migrants died at sea as they hoped to find a better life in Britain.
Billant said this year’s death toll has already been surpassed, with 25 migrants having lost their lives since January.
He said people crossing the ocean often do so “without life jackets”, adding “the quality of the ships is very poor because they don’t have enough air and often they don’t have a solid bottom… or the engines aren’t in working order.”
A non-governmental organization called l’Auberge des Migrants (“the Migrant Hostel”) on X mourned the deaths.
“This border kills with utmost silence,” it says.
As of August 8, 17,639 people had reached Britain by sea this year on so-called “small boats”, according to an AFP count based on British government data.
This is very close to the figure for the same period in 2022, which will be a year of record crossings.
‘Smuggler network’
Following the Labour Party’s victory in the British general election in July, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to strengthen “cooperation” in tackling a surge in the number of illegal migrants.
Starmer has scrapped a plan by the former Conservative government to send irregular migrants to a camp in Rwanda.
French authorities seek to prevent migrants from getting into the water, but they do not intervene once they have swum into the water except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.
Meanwhile, both governments are trying to crack down on human smuggling gangs who organise these illegal crossings and are paid thousands of euros by each migrant for this risky journey.
Billant said more than 350 people had been arrested and 15 “smuggling networks” dismantled since the beginning of the year.
The deaths of the new migrants come at a time of anti-immigrant unrest in the United Kingdom, with three children killed in a stabbing attack on July 29 that was falsely linked on social media to Muslim migrants.
Thousands of anti-racism protesters rallied across the United Kingdom on Saturday against riots that targeted mosques and hotels linked to immigration.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
