On Sunday, (July 28) the French maritime authorities for the Channel and the North Sea (Préfecture Maritime Manche et mer du Nord) reported that a woman died on board a migrant dinghy off the coast of Calais.

According to a press release from the authorities, the coordination center for rescue operations received a distress call during the night between July 27 and July 28 and immediately sent out a patrol boat, Armoise, from the naval police (Gendarmerie maritime) and a coast guard boat, Kermorvan, to locate the boat in distress.

Early Sunday morning at around 5:30 am they found the "very overcrowded boat in difficulties. Some of those on board were asking for assistance," according to the press release.

The French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that there were 75 migrants on the boat in question. A second boat, with six people on board also required assistance off the coast of Dunkerque later on Sunday, reported the French maritime authorities in a post on their X page. In this case, the rescued migrants were taken back to Calais.

Four people taken off the boat initially

With the first rescue, early on Sunday morning, the two patrol boats launched semi-rigid ribs and began trying to help those in difficulties. They took four people off the boat and offered them emergency first aid. One of the people taken off the boat was reported to be "unconscious."

After a call with doctors on land, it was decided that a helicopter should evacuate the unconscious person immediately for help in hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Unfortunately, the woman was declared dead soon after arrival.

The rib rescue ships continued to take people off the boat in distress. However, several people on board the migrant dinghy refused help from the French authorities and, after assessing the risks of possibly falling into the sea or being injured if the authorities had attempted a forced transfer to their ships, they decided to let the migrants continue on their way.

A total of 35 people were taken to shore and handed over to the emergency service and border police, stated the French press release. One of those was the woman who died.

On the same day, French maritime authorities confirmed that several other migrant boats had set out, and surveillance continued to ensure no one was in danger. British authorities provided a daily update showing that on July 27, 370 people crossed the Channel in six small boats.

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More people on board individual boats

According to a report in the British left-leaning Guardian newspaper, the woman who died "is understood to be a Syrian woman who suffocated," adding that the majority of those on board were also from Syria, "including members of her family."

AFP quoted the French maritime authority saying that the woman’s death appeared to be part of "a new phenomenon of people dying at sea not by drowning [but] by illness or in a crush."

The number of people on board the boats attempting to cross the Channel appears to be increasing. The organization Alarm Phone confirmed that several of the recent incidents in the Channel ending in fatality had as many as 86 people on board a relatively small inflatable dinghy.

Alarm Phone alleges that the increase in the number of people on board each boat is due to a combined effort between the British and French authorities, begun under the UK’s previous government, to "stop the boats." Other NGOs, such as the French organization Salam which works with migrants in the Calais area, have also noted that there are a "scary" number of people being crammed on the boats lately, reported AFP.

An unnamed Syrian asylum seeker who attempted the crossing on Sunday told the Guardian that smugglers are taking "greater risks" to avoid French police.

"The smugglers took us through the forest and I thought there were 15 of us getting into the boat. But when we got to the beach there were 100. The French police destroyed two of the dinghies so we could not travel," they said. They added that they were determined to try again as soon as was possible.

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23 deaths so far this year

This is at least the seventh person to have died attempting to cross the Channel in just over two weeks. Four men died on an overcrowded boat on July 12, an Eritrean woman died on July 17 and another man two days later, reported AFP. In that incident, the French authorities said that there were 86 people on board the boat and five had fallen into the sea, including the man who died.

The French maritime authority said that 23 people so far this year have died in migrant boat incidents in the Channel. In 2023, the death toll was recorded as 12.

A total of 255 migrants are recorded as having crossed the Channel on July 28 in four small boats. The latest figures from the Home Office show that more than 16,00 (16,457) arrived since the beginning of the year. In the week ending July 21, 1,500 migrants made the crossing.

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Families appear to turn back in video footage

On Monday, July 29, the news agency dpa reported that one migrant traveling on an inflatable boat down a French riverway had shouted "this is for Rishi Sunak," before reportedly picking up more people on a beach in Calais and launching into the Channel.

The British newspaper, the Evening Standard posted some of the footage on its You Tube channel: The video footage showed dozens of people wading into the water at Gravelines, near Calais, and pulling themselves onto an already crowded boat. Men, women and some young children could be seen emerging from the dunes, some but not all wearing life jackets, reported the German press agency dpa.

Some youngsters were being carried on adult’s shoulders, but at least one family appears to turn back from the sea when they see how far out they needed to wade. Police are also seen in the footage, appearing to approach some of the families before they turn away.

Volunteers from the French organization Utopia 56 were also present at the beach. They told the British PA news agency they were there to make sure people didn’t get into trouble and to monitor how the police engage with migrants on the beaches.

Four boats seen to leave the French coast on Monday

One of the Utopia 56 volunteers, named as Pablo Eymard-Picollec told dpa: "As you can see on the boat, it was really, really crowded, so I think they assumed it was too risky for them to go, but we have to speak with them to know for sure the reason they didn’t go today."

Another unnamed Utopia 56 volunteer told dpa that they believed that the police patrols and preventions were a direct factor in the increase in the number of migrants attempting to get on one boat. "There are more people now in one boat,” they were reported as saying, “so there is more risk and things like yesterday," they concluded, referring to the death of the Syrian woman on Sunday.

Utopia 56 said they had seen four boats leave the French coastline on Monday morning.

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With Reuters, dpa and AFP