A migrant heading to the UK has died trying to cross the English Channel after the overcrowded boat she was travelling on deflated and sank, authorities say.
The woman, who has not been identified, was the sixth person in a week to die in such horrific circumstances.
He is said to have been of Sudanese origin and was among 86 people who set off from a beach near Calais in the early hours of this morning.
“A distress call was heard shortly after midnight, but at first the people on board did not want to be rescued,” said a source from the French emergency services.
‘Navy personnel on board the patrol boat Cormoran rescued five people from the sea to begin with, but the people still on board the deflated boat were also in a lot of trouble.
The file image shows a group of migrants attempting to cross the Channel from France.
‘There was one inanimate person among them, and efforts were made to revive him, but he was soon pronounced dead.
‘The ship was heavily overloaded and sea conditions were very rough.’
A criminal investigation was launched last Friday after four UK-bound migrants who were not wearing life jackets drowned when their overcrowded inflatable boat capsized off Boulogne-Sur-Mer, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Calais.
Another person also drowned two days ago in Gravelines, near Dunkirk, after setting sail from that beach.
Prosecutors believe the “poor quality, underpowered” boats used in all the cases were organised by people smugglers charging around £1,000 per person.
The latest death means 22 people have died this year alone while trying to reach the English coast to claim asylum.
This comes two days after a UK Border Force boat returned people to France for the first time.
British and French teams have been working together to rescue a group of migrants off the coast of Gravelines in northern France on Wednesday, it emerged.
Patrols discovered people in the water, triggering a rescue operation with the help of the British Border Force and the RNLI.
Some 59 people were rescued aboard the French vessel PSP Cormoran, including one unconscious person who could not be resuscitated by the medical team.
French police officers in riot gear pictured watching migrants launch themselves into the Channel in their overloaded inflatable boat on July 11, 2024
A British ship, the Border Force Ranger, also rescued 13 people from the water and both ships took the group of people to Calais.
It is believed to be the first time a British ship has picked up migrants in French waters and been asked to return them to France.
However, government sources told MailOnline that “there is no change in policy or approach” and that “it was simply the way the operation was carried out”.
A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokeswoman said: ‘Her Majesty’s Coastguard received a report of a small craft in difficulty in French waters near Calais at around 2.40pm on 17 July.
‘A Border Force vessel and an RNLI lifeboat were sent to support the French vessels in the operation, which was coordinated by the French authorities.’
The year to date has been the busiest for crossings, with 14,759 migrants arriving between January 1 and July 16 (the most recent date for which figures are available). This compares with 14,622 in 2022, the second-busiest year.
The French coast guard added that it continued searching the site until nightfall and that no more people were found in the water.
A Home Office source said: ‘There is ongoing cooperation on these types of rescue missions and consideration of where people are taken back to is usually based on conditions at sea and the welfare of those who have been in the water.
“There is no change in policy or approach, this is how the operation unfolded.”
Last Friday, four people died after a boat full of asylum seekers capsized at 4.30am off the coast of Boulogne sur Mer in northern France.
More than 12,000 people have crossed the Channel so far this year, according to provisional figures from the Ministry of the Interior published in mid-June.
The figure was 18 percent higher than at the same point last year, when 10,472 people had made the crossing.
