Five migrants have died after trying to reach the UK from northern France despite freezing temperatures, the French maritime authority said.
The group was attempting to reach a vessel off Wimereux when their small boat got into difficulty at around 2am (0100 GMT) today, the maritime prefecture told AFP.
‘We have four dead migrants and one migrant in a critical condition at the hospital in Boulogne-sur-mer,’ said one official on Sunday morning.
Just after midday, a fifth migrant was confirmed to have died. They are the first reported migrant deaths on the Channel in 2024.
The five migrants who died and the one in intensive care were thought to be from Iraq and Syria, an emergency services source said.
The migrants were attempting to reach a boat in freezing water in an effort to cross the Channel, Agence France-Presse reports.
The beach of Wimereux, northern France. Five migrants have died after trying to reach the UK from northern France. The group was attempting to reach a vessel off Wimereux when their small boat got into difficulty at around 2am (0100 GMT) today
The beach of Wimereux, northern France.
In a separate incident, the first migrants to cross the English Channel to the UK in 2024 were brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel on Saturday, January 13
Local newspaper La Voix du Nord said that around 70 people were trying to get into the small boat and dozens were pulled from the cold water during overnight rescue efforts in Wimereux.
Those rescued included mothers and children, who were suffering from hypothermia.
The crew of a French tow vessel, the Abeille Normandie, went to the rescue and spotted ‘unconscious and lifeless people’ in the water, an official said, estimating the water temperature at nine degrees Celsius.
A Navy helicopter, police and 50 firefighters were involved in the rescue operation.
Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron said the reported deaths of the migrants in the Channel today was ‘heartbreaking’.
He told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: ‘It’s heartbreaking when these things happen, and the loss of life that takes place.
‘And you can only think about what an appalling end it would be, and the cold waters of the Channel in the middle of the night, it breaks my heart to hear about it.
‘But it just shows we’ve got to stop the boats, we’ve got to stop this illegal trade in human beings.’
The former Prime Minister argued that the solution is forcibly removing unauthorised arrivals to Rwanda, with Rishi Sunak’s Bill to get the stalled policy up and running returning to the Commons for crunch votes this week.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron appears on ‘Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg’ in London, on January 14, 2024
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the incident as a ‘tragic loss of life’ but disputed the solution.
‘I don’t know the details, in a sense we don’t need to know the details. To lose your life in a small dinghy or boat in the winter sea in the Channel is just awful,’ he told the BBC.
But on the Rwanda plan advocated by Lord Cameron, he said: ‘I think he is wrong about that.
‘I absolutely agree that we need to stop these Channel crossings.
‘They are dangerous, we have lost control of our borders, and we need to do something to stop the boats.
‘Now I think the starting place for that is to go after the criminal gangs that are running this vile trade.’
The first migrants to cross the Channel to the UK this year were recorded on Saturday morning after 27 days of no crossings – the longest gap in small boat arrivals for just over five years.
Arrivals had not been recorded since December 16, according to Home Office figures, with poor weather potentially contributing to the lack of activity at sea.
However, the quiet period was alleviated on Saturday, with Wimereux mayor Jean-Luc Debaele noting: ‘There is no wind, the sea is calm, even if the water is freezing. We’ll be on guard all weekend.’
The 27-day period of no crossings is the longest since a hiatus of 48 days between September 2 and October 19, 2018, government data shows.