Five migrants die crossing Channel

Migrants filmed by the BBC leaving the French coast at Dunkirk early on Tuesday morning

At least five migrants, including a child, have died after their dinghy capsized in an attempt to cross the English Channel, French police said on Tuesday.

Several small boats got into trouble after trying to cross the Channel near the town of Wimereux, north of Boulogne, according to local newspaper La Voix du Nord.

The French coast guard told Reuters that police were operating at a beach, adding that there were several bodies. Unconfirmed reports said a four-year-old girl was among the five migrants reported to have died.

The reported deaths came hours after Parliament finally passed into law Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill, paving the way for the first deportation flights aimed at deterring the crossings.

French maritime authorities for the Channel and the North Sea told the Telegraph: “We are aware of an operation underway and unconscious people have been brought to shore but we are missing sufficient information to provide more details for now.”

Several dozen boats carrying migrants are reported to have left beaches around Calais at 3am as people smugglers exploited the favourable weather conditions and relative calm of the sea.

Migrants on the beach at Dunkirk – north of where the boat capsized – early on Tuesday

La Voix du Nord said that a few hours after departure, several of the boats got into difficulty with at least one said to have capsized.

Emergency services, police and coastguards from Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk were sent to the scene. A aircraft operated by the EU border force Frontex was seen flying over the area, while several reconnaissance drones were sent offshore to monitor the boats still afloat.

During the night, French police officers intercepted two boats, two fuel cans, two engines and life jackets before they could be used to put migrants to sea.

On Monday Home Office figures showed the number of migrants arriving by small boats across the Channel had increased by 24 per cent to 6,265 in the first four months of this year, compared with 5,049 in the same period in 2023.

The latest incident comes six weeks after a seven-year-old girl drowned in the Aa canal at Watten, which flows into the North Sea, while in a small boat with 15 other migrants.

At the end of February, a 22-year-old Turkish man died when he fell from his boat off the coast of Calais. An Eritrean was indicted and detained on Saturday in connection with this case.

On the night of Jan 13, five migrants, including a 14-year-old Syrian teenager, died at Wimereux as they tried to reach a boat already at sea in 9C water.

Twelve migrants lost their lives in 2023 trying to cross the English Channel, according to the Préfecture maritime de la Manche et de la Mer du Nord.

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