One person has died trying to cross the Channel in a small boat that sank off the coast of Calais, while 69 were rescued during what French authorities said was a very busy night for crossings.
The small boat began to take in water before French navy ship Abeille Normandie rescued the 70 people on board. Only half of those on board had life jackets. The French navy’s Dauphin helicopter was also involved in the rescue operation.
Two people were carried unconscious on to the Abeille Normandie. One was resuscitated while the other was taken by helicopter to hospital, where they were later pronounced dead.
The person is at least the fourth so far this year to die attempting to cross the Channel in a small boat. A Syrian man in his twenties is thought to have been crushed to death on 11 January in an overcrowded boat that began to collapse after setting off from Sangatte. On 10 February two bodies were found after attempting to swim out to a small boat.
So far this year more than 1,500 people have crossed the Channel in small boats including three people who made their own boat and crossed the Channel on 10 February. The UK government has launched initiatives they say will “smash” the business model of the smugglers who organise the Channel crossings.
Last year 36,816 people crossed the Channel, down from the record high in 2022, when 45,755 crossed. Since small boat crossings began in 2018, more than 150,000 people have arrived in the UK by this route.
A statement from the French maritime prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea said the Channel was particularly dangerous in the middle of winter for precarious and overloaded boats, as it was a busy shipping lane with difficult weather conditions.
Utopia 56, a French organisation that supports migrants in northern France posted on X about Saturday’s death, describing it as a “harmful consequence” of government policies to stop small boats from crossing the Channel.
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A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
Source: theguardian.com
