‘Two children among dead’ after English Channel crossing attempt

According to French media reports, two children are among the three people who died after a small boat passage at the British channel.

Regional prosecutor Laurent Touvet announced at a press conference on Wednesday that the deadly incident appeared on the shores of Sangat in the Pas-de-Calais until the early hours of this morning.

He said that three of them were probably crushed at the bottom of the boat ”carrying 38 people on the British channel.

The boat was brought to the shore by rescue services around 5 am local time.

After a second boat attempted a transition from Neufchâtel-Hardelot, three people were declared missing from Sangatte after about one hour of driving from the beach.

A third boat on the ship was rescued in the Calais area after having difficulty. In this case, the injury was not reported.

The Calais Prosecutor’s Office blamed the deaths in the smuggling gangs responsible for organizing deadly transitions.

“Smuggling networks are responsible for these tragedies. The state is determined to fight them,” he said.

It was announced that another person died on Tuesday after trying to pass the channel on a small boat.

A city police spokesman said the woman was sent back to the shore around 13.00 and that she was pronounced dead.

There is no official registration of the number of deaths of people trying to cross the channel.

However, according to an Agency France-Presse account based on official data, at least 23 people died this year while trying to cross the British channel.

Last year, according to the events recorded by the French Coast Guard, 50 people died while trying to cross the channel, which has been accepted as the most deadly year since the emergence of the crisis.

The International Migration Organization (IOM) reported a few more immigrants who were believed to be linked to transition attempts in 2024.