At least 12 migrants died on Tuesday while trying to cross the Channel from France to England, making it the deadliest such incident this year, the French government said.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the death toll on X, stating that two migrants were still missing. “All government services are mobilised to find the missing people and treat the injured,” Darmanin said. He also mentioned that he was heading to the area of the disaster to meet with officials.
The tragedy occurred when a boat carrying dozens of migrants ran into trouble off Wimereux, a town about five kilometres from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the northern French coast. Several of the migrants were injured, and emergency services were providing urgent medical assistance, French maritime authorities reported.
Naval officer Etienne Baggio said crew members on a French government-operated ship, the Minck, were the first to respond to the emergency. French navy helicopters, fishing boats, and military vessels have been mobilised for the ongoing rescue operation.
A source close to the investigation revealed that the dead included three minors, and many of the survivors are in critical condition. So far this year, 25 people have died attempting migrant crossings, up from 12 deaths in 2023.
The French and British governments have been working together for years to try and stop the flow of migrants who pay smugglers thousands of euros for the dangerous journey across the Channel in small boats. Despite these efforts, 351 migrants crossed in small boats on Monday alone, with a total of 21,615 making the journey this year, according to UK government statistics.
Earlier this summer, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to strengthen cooperation in handling the rise in undocumented migrant numbers. However, crossings remain perilous; in November 2021, 27 migrants died when their boat capsized, marking the deadliest incident to date.
French authorities attempt to prevent migrants from setting out to sea but do not intervene once they are afloat, except for rescue purposes, due to safety concerns. Starmer recently cancelled a plan by the former UK Conservative government to send irregular migrants to a holding camp in Rwanda.
The British government is now planning “a major surge” in returning irregular migrants to countries like Iraq as it tries to address an asylum backlog. Both the French and British governments continue efforts to break the business models of people-smuggling gangs who organize these risky crossings and charge each migrant thousands of euros for the trip.
