The bodies of three people have been found on the beaches of northern France since Tuesday. Authorities believe they are likely to be migrants who died trying to reach Britain.
The decomposed remains of a male in his thirties was washed up on the rising tide on Thursday (November 14) on the beach in Calais, where it was seen by a man out walking, the local newspaper La Voix du Nord reported.
The discovery brings to 12 the number of bodies recovered from the sea or found on the beaches of northern France since late October, according to several counts.
Earlier this week, the remains of two people were found on the beach at Sangatte and Wissant, west of Calais.
Boulogne prosecutor Guirec Le Bras told the French news agency AFP on Tuesday that police were investigating the deaths.
Their "working hypothesis" was that the people were migrants who died trying to reach Britain, he said. The remains appeared to have been in the water for several days, he added.
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Dozens of missing
Shipwrecks during attempted migrant crossings from France to the UK are increasingly common.
By November 6, the UN migration agency's Missing Migrants project had documented the deaths of at least 70 migrants in the Channel. Many recorded instances were based on reports of bodies washed up on the French coast.
Increasingly, the deaths that happen at sea are the result of asphyxiation in inflatable dinghies which are are often massively overloaded and lack safety equipment such as lifejackets.
French authorities do not include accounts of missing migrants received from relatives, instead relying only on actual sightings of bodies by sea rescue workers. Survivors and loved ones of the missing have told InfoMigrants of the distress this causes.
In a single sinking in the Channel on October 23, three people were confirmed dead, but the true number of missing remains unknown.
Aid groups helping migrants in the Calais region have suggested that around 10 missing or deceased people may not have been recovered, while a Syrian man who survived the crossing told InfoMigrants that 14 people, including his father, were still missing.
Similarly, the official number of four dead in another Channel shipwreck on October 30 is likely to be an undercount. Another man from Iraq who spoke to InfoMigrants said his friend had been on the boat, but that the friend's name was not among the recorded victims.
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