At least eight people have died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said Sunday.
The incident happened just before midnight on Saturday when authorities spotted a boat with dozens of people on board running into trouble near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse.
A French rescue ship was sent but was unable to offer assistance at sea. Once the vessel reached the beach, emergency services provided medical care to 53 migrants on the spot, according to a report by French maritime authorities responsible for the canal and the northern coast.
Despite emergency care, eight people have died, the statement said.
No more people were found during a search at sea, he added.
Six people were taken to hospitals in Boulogne and Calais in a relative emergency, including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, Jacques Billant, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, told French media on Sunday. The survivors of the accident were from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran.
The inflatable boat, carrying 59 people, left the beach near the town of Vimont and ran aground shortly afterwards, according to the prefect. The boat was clearly smashed on the rocks, he added.
Fifty-one survivors have been taken to a shelter in Toulouse, according to local authorities. The public prosecutor’s office in Boulogne-sur-Mer has opened an investigation into the incident.
The incident occurred nearly two weeks after a boat carrying migrants broke down in the English Channel as it tried to reach Britain from northern France. Dozens of people fell into the water on the dangerous route and 12 died, according to authorities.
British authorities were quick to express their sadness at yet another incident in the English Channel.
“It’s appalling,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC. “It’s another loss of life.”
The new Labour government has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs who drive migrant smuggling and has spoken to its European partners about how we pursue these gangs, working together along different parts of the migration route.
Increasingly strict asylum laws in Europe, rising xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have pushed them north. At least 46 migrants have died trying to cross into the United Kingdom this year, said Billant, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais.
At least 137,563 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel from France since 2018, according to figures from the UK Home Office. On Saturday alone, 14 boats carrying 801 migrants reached British territory.
French coast guard and navy ships rescued 200 people from treacherous waters off the Pas-de-Calais on Saturday, according to French maritime authorities in charge of the English Channel and the North Sea.
On Saturday, 18 attempts were observed to sail from France to the UK, they said.
Other surveillance and rescue operations were underway on Sunday in the Pas de Calais, in stormy conditions and rough seas, according to French maritime authorities.
They warned of significant risks for anyone attempting to cross the canal in flimsy, overloaded vessels, often in difficult weather conditions.
Four migrants died in July while attempting to make the crossing in an inflatable boat that sank and became punctured.
Five others, including a child, died in another attempt in April. Five bodies were recovered from the sea or found on the beach after another boat ran into trouble in the dark and cold of winter in January.
