At least six people trying to reach the UK via the English Channel died when the boat they were traveling on sank, French officials said today.
Fifty-five people were rescued and the search continues to find between 5 and 10 missing, said a spokeswoman for the French coastal authority Premar.
Three French ships, a helicopter and a plane were mobilized to search the area off Sangatte in northern France, along with two British ships.
The French prosecutor’s office said the first identified victim was a man between 25 and 30 years of Afghan origin, who had been evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in the French city of Calais, but who later died.
Five other people in critical condition were taken to Calais in a lifeboat but were pronounced dead on the boat’s arrival, the Premar spokeswoman was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
The boat capsized around 2 in the morning (21 yesterday in Argentina) off the north coast of France, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“My thoughts are with the victims,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on the X social network, exTwitter.
This route, one of the busiest in the world, has been the scene of multiple shipwrecks in recent years.
Despite the danger of the route, migrants are still trying to reach the United Kingdom through this channel, which since 2018 has been crossed by more than 100,000 people illegally, aboard small boats, according to official figures released yesterday by London.
The count of cross-Channel crossings by speedboats originating mainly from France began in 2018, when the closure of the port of Calais and the Eurotunnel terminal made it difficult or impossible for migrants to cross by truck, which encouraged people smugglers to opt for the sea route.
Yesterday, the British government had to evacuate a barge set up as a detention center for undocumented migrants, after detecting a bacterium in the water.
According to the authorities, no person became infected.
Source: Ambito
