PARIS – At least eight people died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said Sunday.
The tragedy occurred Saturday just before midnight when authorities spotted a boat, carrying dozens, in distress near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse.
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A French rescue ship was deployed to the area and rescue services offered medical assistance to 53 migrants on the beach, a statement from the French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said.
“Despite the emergency care provided, eight people have died,” the statement said.
No people were discovered during the search at sea, it added.
Six people were taken to hospital “in relative emergency,” including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, Jacques Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect, told French media on Sunday. He said that survivors came from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran.
The inflatable boat, carrying 59 people, set sail from the beach near the town of Vimont and ran aground soon after, the prefect said. “The boat was clearly torn apart on the rocks,” he added.
Fifty-one survivors have been taken to a reception center in the city of Toulouse, according to local authorises. The prosecutor's office in Boulogne-sur-mer has opened an investigation.
The deaths on Saturday occurred nearly two weeks after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead, officials said.
British officials were quick to express sadness over another English Channel tragedy.
“It’s awful,’’ Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC. “It’s a further loss of life.”
The new Labour Party government has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs and had discussed with European partners “how we go after those gangs, in cooperation upstream.’’
Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north. At least 46 migrants had died while trying to cross to the U.K. this year, said Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect.
At least 137,563 people have reached the United Kingdom after crossing the Channel from France since 2018, according to U.K. Home Office figures. On Saturday alone, 14 boats carrying 801 migrants reached Britain.
French coast guard and navy vessels on Saturday rescued 200 people from the treacherous waters in the Pas-de-Calais area, according to a report sent by French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea.
They said they observed 18 attempts of boat departures from France to Britain on Saturday.
Other surveillance and rescue operations are underway Sunday along the entire Pas-de-Calais coast amid stormy weather conditions and agitated sea, French maritime authorities said. They warned anyone who tries to cross the Channel on flimsy and overloaded boats and in often difficult weather conditions of “significant risks.”
In July, four migrants died while attempting the crossing on an inflatable boat that capsized and punctured. Five others, including a child, died in another attempt in April. Five dead were recovered from the sea or found washed up along a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the dark and winter cold of January.
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Danica Kirka contributed to this report from London.