One particular person has died and 15 individuals have been rescued whereas making an attempt to cross the English Channel in a single day in an overloaded small boat.
French authorities stated the boat initially set off near the port of Dunkirk at 11:30pm on Wednesday, with round 40 individuals on board.
However greater than three hours later, at round 3:30am, the identical boat then picked up an additional group of individuals on the Gravelines coast, which lies some 12 miles to the west of Dunkirk and 35 miles from the port of Dover.
Three individuals have been rescued from the water and a gaggle of 12 others on board the dinghy requested to be evacuated, the French coastguard stated.
One particular person rescued was unconscious and was declared lifeless regardless of medical therapy, after being airlifted by a Navy helicopter onto the state-chartered vessel which had been monitoring the dinghy all through its journey.
The 14 different individuals rescued have been taken again to the French shoreline on a patrol boat, the place they acquired medical therapy. An investigation has been opened by the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s workplace.
French authorities stated of their assertion on Thursday morning that they have been nonetheless monitoring the dinghy because it continued to journey in direction of the UK, with round 80 individuals nonetheless on board.
It was one in every of a number of boats reported to have set off from the French shoreline in a single day on Wednesday, authorities stated. The day before today, 5 boats arrived in Britain carrying a complete of 289 individuals, after greater than every week of zero crossings.
At the very least seven individuals have now died in 2025 whereas making an attempt to make the perilous journey throughout the Channel, in line with the Worldwide Organisation for Migration. It is among the world’s busiest transport lanes, traversed by greater than 600 business vessels each day.
The UN company estimates that at the very least 78 individuals died in 2024, making it the deadliest yr on document. At the very least 225 migrants have misplaced their lives since such crossings first began to be detected in 2018, after more and more stringent safety measures at ports and the Eurotunnel succeeded in stopping stowaways on lorries and trains sure for the UK.
The small dinghies which cross the strait are continuously dangerously filled with much more individuals than is secure to hold, with a father describing to the BBC last May how his seven-year-old daughter was fatally crushed aboard a ship carrying 110 individuals.
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