Two people drowned on Wednesday when their boat capsized in the English Channel. Fifty-eight others, including a seven-year-old girl, were also on board the small vessel which was bound for the UK.
The man and woman, both in their thirties, had set out in a boat carrying 60 people from the coast of northern France at about 1:30 pm on Wednesday (November 22).
The boat capsized and sank a short time later, according to authorities. No information was given about the nationalities of the two deceased.
Rescuers said that a third person was airlifted to hospital, while the other 57 migrants on the boat were brought back to land in France. French authorities said many were suffering from hypothermia.
The prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Guirec Le Bras, said a manslaughter investigation had begun.
Two years since 2021 boat tragedy
According to Le Bras, several boats left the same beach in Pas-de-Calais on Wednesday morning, despite the presence of paramilitary police.
The accident brings to eight the number of people known to have died so far this year trying to reach the UK by irregular routes.
It comes almost two years to the day after at least 27 people died in a shipwreck in the Channel on November 24, 2021. They included an Iraqi woman and her three children, the youngest of whom, Hasti Rezgar, was aged seven.
The last deadly accident this year was on August 12, when a boat capsized and six Afghans drowned. A few days after the incident, four people were charged with criminal offenses.
Taking greater risks
Olivier Ternisien, head of the Osmose 62 group that helps migrants in the Boulogne region, said he was "depressed and angry" at the news of the deaths on Wednesday. He told AFP that people trying to get to Britain are now taking bigger risks with deteriorating weather in the region.
Authorities on both sides of the Channel also report that boats making the crossing are increasingly overloaded, with the average number of about 53 nearly double the average of two years ago.
Also read: Channel crossings: 'We expect to see boats with hundreds of migrants in distress'
Osmose 62 and other groups say the increased presence of security forces is a factor that encourages migrants to attempt more dangerous journeys.
Around 27,200 migrants have reached the UK by boat from France so far this year, according to British authorities. In the whole of 2022, around 45,000 made the crossing.
Overall, about nine out of ten people crossing the Channel are males. The largest group by nationality are Afghans, according to UK government figures.
A very large majority of people who cross the Channel claim asylum in the UK (90% in the period January through June 2023).
With AFP