Police on Wednesday stopped a group of at least 100 migrants, including children, as they were heading to a beach at Sangatte with the intention of crossing the Channel in boats.

The prefecture from the Pas-de-Calais region told the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) that just three days after five people died in the Channel attempting a similar crossing, they wanted to make sure that this group didn’t depart.

An AFP correspondent at Sangatte reported that "many police officers blocked the group’s access to the beach." They said there were "lots of small children present in the group."

The local prefecture said that it had offered accommodation to all the families and other vulnerable people in the group, adding that this was standard procedure following any rescue carried out by the authorities.

Migrants declined offer of accommodation

The prefecture told AFP that the people had at first accepted the accommodation offer, but later changed their minds and refused to enter the centers provided for them.

The area on France’s north coast around Calais, like much of the rest of northern Europe, is experiencing cold winter conditions. A warning for dangerous ice and cold has been issued for anyone traveling in the area.

The water temperature at the weekend, when five people lost their lives, was just seven degrees, said the prefecture for the Pas-de-Calais region on X (formerly Twitter). In such temperatures, life expectancy in the water is limited to about ten minutes, it added. "Smuggling networks are causing migrants to take huge risks, and employing ever more dangerous methods," wrote the prefecture, saying the winter made everything even more problematic.

On Tuesday night, police in the Pas-de-Calais region said they had intercepted a vehicle with around 40 migrants on board in Wimereux. Posting on X, they wrote: "The driver of the vehicle is suspected of being a migrant smuggler and we have arrested him for questioning."

Four young Syrians identified

In the meantime, four young Syrian migrants who died in a shipwreck in the Channel at the weekend have been named. According to Utopia 56, an organization helping migrants in Calais and Paris, the victims were Ayham (25), Mohammed (19), and brothers Aysar (27) and Abadeh (15). A fifth young man could not be identified.

On January 17, the British government’s statistics show that 358 migrants successfully made the crossing to the UK in eight small boats. These were the first recorded crossings since the five young men died on January 14. On that day 139 people made it across and on January 13, 124 people arrived in the port of Dover.