An accident happened in the English Channel when eight people drowned as they tried to cross the channel from France to England, according to French police. The tragedy happened after a rubber boat loaded with about 50 refugees started to capsize in the zone located north of Boulogne-sur-Mer at 01:55 local time.
Help was signaled and called in the form of a distress signal, but the response from the sea was hampered. It was said to be bound towards a beach in Ambleteuse when the emergency crews could not get to the boat on time. Onshore, services such as emergency services were able to treat 53 survivors but stated that eight persons had died. None of the sea searches that followed yielded any more victims.
This comes after another that took the lives of 12 migrants, six children, and a pregnant woman, making one of the most fatal years for the channel crossings. The most recent occurrence has led to an investigation by the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office.
A spokesperson for the UK government said this was the case, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the continued loss of lives saddened him. He touched on the aspects of commitment with European colleagues, especially in the fight against human traffickers and persons seeking hazardous passage to the country.
The recent surge in attempts has been in better weather, and in the last 24 hours, a total of 200 persons were rescued. The French maritime authorities said they observed 18 attempted crossings and some rescue missions in different boats.
This year, 45 have already died in the Channel, making it the deadliest year since 2021, while 12,256 had crossed successfully. The incident was considered another ‘appalling and avoidable tragedy’ by Amnesty International UK, while Enver Solomon, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council, claimed that these were not ‘acts of war’, thus implying that such deaths are preventable.
