- The small boat carrying 16 migrants capsized as it was headed to the UK shores
A seven-year-old girl has been killed in the Channel after migrants tried to sail to Britain, French authorities have said.
A small boat carrying 16 migrants was headed from northern France to Britain when it capsized, the prefecture in France’s Nord department said.
The boat ‘was not appropriately sized to carry so many people,’ the local authority said in a statement, causing it to capsize soon after people boarded in the Aa canal a few kilometres from the coast.
It added that the girl’s parents, who were travelling with three more of their children, were taken to a hospital in Dunkirk.
The tragedy comes just days after three migrants died trying to cross the body of water after their boat got into difficulty.
File photo of migrants crossing the Channel in an inflatable dinghy off the coast of France in October 2023
A small boat carrying 16 migrants was headed from northern France to Britain when it capsized, the prefecture in France’s Nord department said. Pictured: File photo of RNLI rescue boat
The latest crossings take the provisional total number of arrivals in 2024 so far to 2,006
The asylum seekers were pronounced dead after falling in the water off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez in northern France on Thursday.
Patrick Leleu, deputy prosecutor at the Judicial court of Boulogne-sur-Mer, said: ‘I can confirm the death of three migrants who fell into the water this afternoon off the coast of Cap Gris Nez. The investigation is ongoing.’
Earlier this week dozens of migrants were seen battling treacherous conditions in the channel, tackling strong winds and fog, as they tried to reach the UK.
This weeks fatalities comes almost two months after five migrants died on January 14 while trying to make the journey across the 21-mile Dover Straits.
Number 10 has insisted that its taking ‘robust action’ to crack down on people-smuggling gangs, deter migrants from making the dangerous crossings and intercept vessels.
February 25 saw 290 migrants make the perilous journey in five vessels – an average of 58 people crammed into each inflatable dinghy.
This is the highest number of people making the crossing in a single day for more than a month, after 358 people were recorded on January 17.
That now means a total of 2,006 asylum seekers have been recorded crossing the Channel in 43 boats to date in 2024, according to official government figures.
This is a breaking news story. More follows.
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