At least six migrants died from a shipwreck in the English Channel

2023-08-12 18:39:00

The English Channel is one of the world’s busiest routes and the scene of multiple shipwrecks in recent years / Photo: AFP.
At least six people trying to reach the United Kingdom through the English Channel died when the boat in which they were traveling sank, French officials said Saturday.

Fifty-five people were rescued and the search continues to find between 5 and 10 missing, said a spokeswoman for the French coastal authority Premar.

Three French ships, a helicopter and a plane were mobilized to search the area off Sangatte in northern France, along with two British ships.

The French prosecutor’s office pointed out that the first victim identified was an Afghan man between the ages of 25 and 30who had been evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in the French city of Calais, but who later died.

Five other people in critical condition were taken to Calais in a lifeboat but were pronounced dead on the boat’s arrival, the Premar spokeswoman was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The boat capsized around 2 in the morning (21 yesterday in Argentina) off the north coast of Franceaccording to the prosecution.

“My thoughts are with the victims,” ​​French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote.on the social network X, exTwitter.

This morning, a migrant boat capsized off Calais. My thoughts are with the victims.

I salute the commitment of the rescue teams mobilized around the @MarineNationale which saved around fifty shipwrecked people.@HerveBerville goes there.

— Élisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) August 12, 2023

This route, one of the busiest in the world, has been the scene of multiple shipwrecks in recent years.

Despite the danger of the route, migrants are still trying to reach the UK through this channel, which since 2018 it has been crossed by more than 100,000 people illegallyaboard small boats, according to official figures released this Friday by London.

The count of cross-Channel crossings by speedboats originating mainly from France began in 2018, when the closure of the port of Calais and the Eurotunnel terminal made it difficult or impossible for migrants to cross by truck, which encouraged people smugglers to opt for the sea route.

This Friday, the British government had to evacuate a barge set up as a detention center for undocumented migrants, after detecting a bacteria in the water. According to the authorities, no person became infected.