English Channel horror as five migrants die in crossing attempt including child and woman
FIVE migrants have died in a failed attempt to cross the English Channel today, authorities have confirmed.
A child, a woman and three men were killed trying to cross from France this morning.
They had been crossing from an area near the town of Wimereux, local newspaper La Voix du Nord said.
Authorities say they discovered several "lifeless bodies" on what one official called a "busy" morning for crossings, with several attempts reported.
An emergency operation was launched by the French coastguard and by 11am at least five people were reported drowned off the coast at Boulogne sur Mer.
About 100 migrants have been rescued and placed aboard a French navy ship. They will be taken to the port of Boulogne.
MORE ON MIGRANTS
Officials reported a four-year-old girl was among the dead and many others who struggled ashore had been unconscious and suffering from hypothermia.
Dany Patoux, of the Osmose 62 refugee charity, witnessed the return of a number of survivors, including the dead four-year-old girl’s father.
He said: "We knew the little girl well. We have photos with her, with a big smile on her face, in the hope of a better life.
"But now, everything is ruined. Her father fell into our arms right away.
Most read in The Sun
"He was crying, in a daze. He saw his little daughter die before his eyes."
Most of those on board were paying the equivalent of up to £1,000 per head for a voyage, meaning a single boat could be worth £100,000 to a smuggler.
A Maritime Prefecture spokesman said: "One of the boats had around 110 people on board.
"It hit a sandbank just off Wimereux, and this caused mass panic on the boat. People stood up, and the boat became unbalanced.
"The boat ran aground for a few minutes, but then continued out to sea.
"People began to fall into the water, and then the boat capsized, flinging everybody into the very cold sea."
By 11am, funeral directors could be seen collecting bodies around Boulogne, as survivors were rushed to hospital.
An investigating source based in Boulogne said “at least five” overcrowded small boats were seen pushing off from the beach at Wimereux at around 3am.
Tragedies have to stop, Cleverly says
Following the reports of deaths in the English Channel, Home Secretary James Cleverly said: "These tragedies have to stop.
"I will not accept a status quo which costs so many lives.
"This Government is doing everything we can to end this trade, stop the boats and ultimately break the business model of the evil people smuggling gangs, so they no longer put lives at risk."
MP Robert Jenrick added: "This is another intolerable tragedy. It’s a scandal these death traps masquerading as boats are travelling uninterrupted across the EU.
"EU must finally grant member states legal cover to seize these unseaworthy boats that are costing precious lives."
He said: “Weather conditions were very calm, and hundreds of people were trying to get onto the boats at first light.
“Officers had already dispersed a number of them on Monday night, and confiscated nautical equipment including inflatable boats, outboard engines, life jackets and cans of fuel.
“But despite the police operation, hundreds of men, women and children got through, and managed to launch.
“All the boats were overcrowded, clearly because the people smugglers who organised them wanted to make as much money as possible.
“There were more than 100 people on single boats, which is incredibly dangerous, and the reason they capsized – the boats just can’t take the weight of all those people.
“There were lots of children on the boats, including a four-year-old girl who died.”
This afternoon French coastguard issued a detailed statement about the horror incident.
They said that at 6am (French time) the migrant boat - with more than 100 people on board - set sail from a beach near Wimereux.
At around 6.23 am., the heavily laden boat appeared to be in difficulty a few hundred meters from the beach after passing a sandbank.
The engine had stopped and two people fell into the water near the boat.
The French Coastguard station at CROSS Gris Nez then engaged the vessel RIAS Abeille Normandie to rescue the two castaways as well as the chartered vessel Minck.
The French say when they arrived on the scene, the sailors of the RIAS rescued the two castaways.
They said "several people appeared to be lifeless and in great difficulty on board the migrant boat that was adrift after it passed over the sandbar."
They added: "Of the six people who were quickly taken care of on the beach of Wimereux, five unfortunately could not be resuscitated.
"The particularly large number of people crammed into this boat confirms the particularly dangerous methods of the smugglers who do not hesitate to test departures with dramatic overloads for people's lives in order to make even more profit."
The Channel between France and Britain is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, making the crossing on small boats dangerous.
People smugglers typically overload rickety dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at risk of being lashed by the waves as they try to reach British shores.
Illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson said reports of further deaths in the English Channel were "absolutely chilling".
Asked on ITV's Good Morning Britain about the reported tragedy, he said: "It is absolutely chilling to hear that.
"We have had fatalities now in the Channel for nine consecutive months."
PREVIOUS DEATHS
The deaths take the number of recorded fatalities in the Channel in 2024 to 14.
The last fatality in the Channel happened on March 3 when a schoolgirl, seven, died.
The girl was among 16 migrants who had to be pulled from the water, but could not be saved.
And on February 28, three migrants died after falling into the water off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, northern France, in an attempted crossing.
Meanwhile, on January 14 five migrants died while trying to make the treacherous journey across the 21-mile Dover Straits.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Home Office figures showed that more than 2,000 migrants have arrived in the UK this year after making the journey from France.
It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is scrambling to get deportation flights going to Rwanda in a bid to deter small boat journeys.
