Twelve migrants die trying to cross the English Channel to the UK – Euractiv

At least 12 migrants died on Tuesday (September 3) off the northern coast of France trying to cross the Channel to England in the deadliest disaster this year, the French government said after a major rescue operation.

Announcing the death toll on X, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also said two migrants were still missing.

Several people were injured after the boat carrying dozens of people ran into trouble off Wimereux, a town about five kilometers (three miles) from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French coast.

A source close to the investigation said three minors were among the dead.

According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, the migrants who died were mostly of Eritrean origin. Ten of them were women and two men, he said. Half of the total were minors.

The crew of the French government-operated ship, the Minck, were the first to notice the emergency and respond, naval officer Etienne Baggio told AFP.

French navy helicopters, fishing boats and military vessels have been mobilised for the operation, he said.

This is the deadliest disaster of this year, with 25 people already dead at migration crossings, compared to 12 in 2023.

The French and British governments have been trying for years to stem the flow of migrants, who pay smugglers thousands of euros a head for passage from France to England aboard small boats.

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called Tuesday’s deaths “horrible and deeply tragic.”

He criticised the “gangs behind this atrocious and cruel trade in human lives” and added that “they care about nothing other than the profits they make.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron had pledged earlier this summer to strengthen “cooperation” to manage the rise in the number of undocumented migrants.

‘Increasing risks’

But on Monday alone, 351 migrants crossed in small boats, with 21,615 of them making the journey this year, according to UK government statistics.

The journey is often dangerous, and in November 2021, 27 migrants died when their boat capsized in the deadliest such disaster to date.

French authorities try to prevent migrants from jumping into the water, but do not intervene once they are afloat, except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.

Darmanin, who attended the scene of the tragedy on Tuesday, told reporters that the EU and Britain needed to negotiate a new treaty on migration.

The EU should try to “restore a traditional migration relationship with our British friends and neighbours,” he said, adding that British payments to France to prevent irregular migration covered only “a third of what we are spending.”

The number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats from France to England has been a major bone of contention in post-Brexit relations between Paris and London.

Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, under pressure to reduce the number of crossings, struck a deal with Macron in March last year to increase British payments to fund more French police along the coast.

Under the agreement, London agreed to increase funding to France to a total of 541 million euros.

But Darmanin said on Tuesday that “the tens of millions of euros we negotiate each year with our British friends” were not enough to stem the flow of migrants, many of whom, he said, wanted to reach Britain to join their families or “work in conditions that would not be acceptable in France.”

Starmer has scrapped a plan by Britain’s previous Conservative government to send illegal immigrants to a detention camp in Rwanda.

The British government is now planning a “significant increase” in returns of illegal immigrants to countries such as Iraq, an official said on Thursday, as it tries to clear a backlog of asylum applications.

Meanwhile, both governments are seeking to break the business models of human trafficking gangs that organise the crossings and receive thousands of euros per migrant for the risky journey.

But Steve Smith, director of the charity Care4Calais, said investment in security measures was “not reducing crossings”.

“People are simply being pushed to take ever greater risks,” he said. “It is time for them to put an end to these tragedies and introduce safe routes.”

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