Twelve peopleamong them Several minors and a pregnant womanhave died This Tuesday, when the boat in which they were trying to illegally cross the river sank English Channel from France to the United Kingdom, French authorities have confirmed.
“Fifty-one people were rescued, two of them in serious condition,” and two others are missing, said acting Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin in a statement from Boulogne sur Mer, the port closest to the scene of the accident.
Among the deceased are “a dozen women“, added Darmanin, who detailed that there were “about seventy people crammed” into the boat by the traffickers. For his part, the mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frédéric Cuvillier, has confirmed to the BBC that among the fatalities, In addition to six minors, there is a pregnant woman.
That’s why he said that “traffickers are real criminals”who “make a lot of money” in exchange for putting irregular migrants at risk.
The minister recalled that a total of 1,700 police officers and gendarmes “are mobilized every day” to monitor the northern coast of France and called on the European Union and London to negotiate and sign “a migration treaty.”
Darmanin praised the “extremely rapid” reaction of the emergency services, which mobilised ten air and naval units, including two fishing boats, after receiving an alert that the migrants’ boat was experiencing problems.
The shipwrecked immigrants They came from Africaapparently mostly from Eritreaaccording to the Boulogne sur Mer prosecutor, Guirec le Bras, who added that an investigation has been opened on several serious charges against the traffickers responsible for the expedition.
The incident took place in the Boulonnais area, in the department of Pas-de-Calais (northern France).
The Maritime Prefecture of the English Channel and North Sea said in a statement that ten naval and air resources were sent after receiving an alert that a migrant boat was in difficulty.
He added that an emergency medical post had been set up in Boulogne sur Mer to treat the victims.
This sinister is The deadliest one so far this year among migrants trying to reach the British coast by sea from France. With today’s victims, a total of 25 people have died on this route since the beginning of the year.
The English Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with some 600 commercial vessels passing through every day, in an area where weather conditions are often difficult, with strong winds making it particularly dangerous, even when the waters are apparently calm.
Last year, A total of 29,437 people arrived on British soil after crossing the Channel illegally, 36% less than the record of 45,774 in 2022, according to official British figures.
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