The lifeless body of a woman was discovered on Friday, April 11, in a camp in Loon-Plage, not far from Dunkirk. She is believed to be "a woman of Sudanese nationality who had health problems," the prosecutor said, without providing further details. An investigation is ongoing.
The lifeless body of a woman was discovered on Friday, April 11, in a migrant camp in Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk, the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) learned Sunday (April 13) from the Dunkirk prosecutor, Charlotte Huet.
"The identity of the deceased has not been confirmed, but initial evidence suggests that, subject to ongoing investigations, she could be a woman of Sudanese nationality who had health problems," the prosecutor said, without providing further details regarding the age, circumstances, or background of the woman.
"While no evidence of third-party involvement has been discovered at this time, a forensic examination will be conducted by a medical examiner to confirm this," she added.
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Investigation on its way
The Dunkirk prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to determine the cause of death and has entrusted it to the city's local judicial police service (SLPJ), the prosecutor added.
Contacted by InfoMigrants, local associations had no further information to provide. "All I can tell you is that on Friday morning, around 11 a.m., before the food distribution began in Loon-Plage, we received numerous messages on our WhatsApp groups," Claire Millot, member of the Salam association, told InfoMigrants. "We were told to be careful if we arrived at the distribution area, that the firefighters were there, and that a woman had collapsed," she said, adding that no violence had been reported that morning.
The living conditions in the Loon-Plage camps are disastrous. Around a thousand migrants are believed to be living there while waiting to cross to England via the English Channel. They live in makeshift shelters, in the cold, far from everything, including medical centers.
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Previous deaths
On March 24, an Eritrean migrant was found dead on a beach in Marck, near Calais (Pas-de-Calais). At the time, this was recorded as the ninth migrant death on the coast in 2025. The victim was "wearing a life jacket," a spokesperson for the prefecture specified, suggesting that she had either just attempted to cross the Channel or was about to try and do so.
According to the French Office for Combating Migrant Smuggling (OLTIM), 78 migrants died in 2024 while attempting to reach England aboard small boats, a new high since the phenomenon began in the region in 2018.
This year has already seen record numbers of arrivals on the British side. In total, since January 1, more than 8,000 migrants (8456 up to April 15) have managed to reach the United Kingdom, a 25 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to Home Office data.
In 2024, 36,816 people arrived on British shores from the French coast. This is 25 percent more than in 2023, but below the peak of 2022, with 45,774 arrivals.