Four people died overnight trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain, French officials have said.
A rescue operation took place off Boulogne-sur-Mer on France’s northern coast after reports of people in the sea. Four of those pulled from the sea had drowned.
At least 56 survivors were rescued early on Friday morning, according to French officials. They are being cared for by the French authorities.
Sources in northern France said this was a particularly dangerous week for crossings because the weather was very changeable, with only six-hour windows of favourable weather for crossings.
The boat was launched off the coast near Boulogne-sur-Mer at about 2am French time. The drownings happened after one of the tubes from the dinghy the group were travelling in deflated, according to the French maritime prefect of the Channel and North Sea.
After the alarm was raised by a French fishing boat in the area, which took part in the rescue operation, the French coastguard spotted the dinghy at 4.30am and a French navy boat and a helicopter were drafted in to assist with picking up those onboard.
Three people who were found unconscious in the water and a fourth found clinging to the wreckage of the dinghy could not be resuscitated. The survivors were taken to the quayside at Boulogne.
The local state representative, Prefect Jacques Billant, said 56 passengers were picked up, three of them women. Four men, reported to be from Somalia, Eritrea or Ethiopia, died, Billant told French journalists.
He said the boat was “very poor quality … under-inflated and under-motorised”. “Only one migrant was wearing a lifejacket. A few others had inner tubes,” Billant said.
An HM Coastguard spokesperson said assistance was offered to the French coastguard. “An RNLI lifeboat from Dover and Border Force vessel were initially sent to provide support but were not required to attend the scene,” they said.
Billant said a second migrant boat was rescued on Friday after leaving Le Touquet with 40 people onboard.
The deaths are the first to happen since Keir Starmer took office as UK prime minister. He has pledged to stop the criminal gangs responsible for organising Channel crossings, but it is unlikely any new policy can be put into action quickly enough to make a dent in the peak in crossings through the summer months.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “The further loss of life in the Channel this morning is truly awful. My thoughts are with all those affected. Criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk. We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue and bring down dangerous smuggler gangs.”
The last major incident was on 23 April when five people died off the French coast trying to reach the UK.
The deaths take the total number killed on the perilous crossing from France to Britain this year to 19.
Home Office figures show 419 people made the journey across the Channel from France in six boats on Tuesday. The figures mean there was an average of about 70 people on each boat and take the provisional total for 2024 to date to 14,058, according to PA Media.
The chief executive of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, said: “This devastating loss of life in the Channel highlights the scale of the challenge facing the new government. Preventing more deaths which are now happening too often is a critical and urgent task.
“We need to bring an end to men, women and children who have fled war and oppression in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iran being driven into the arms of the smuggling gangs by opening safe routes so refugees wanting to be with their families are not forced to take deadly risks. We also need to put in place cooperation agreements with our European allies to provide safe passage from France and trial the use of refugee visas.”
The shadow home secretary, James Cleverly, tweeted: “Reports of more deaths in the Channel are a tragedy. As a country we must do everything in our power to stop the boats and put an end to this vile trade in human suffering.”
Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, said the news of more lives lost in the Channel was “deeply upsetting” and it should prompt politicians to create safe routes.
“Every life lost in the Channel is avoidable, and politicians have the power to end these tragedies,” he said. “Channel crossings are fuelled by a lack of safe routes to claim asylum in the UK, and as a refugee charity that operates in both northern France and the UK we know the only way to stop crossings and save lives is to open safe routes. I hope the new government acts, creates safe routes and saves lives.”
Dr Wanda Wyporska, the chief executive of Safe Passage International, said the tragedy “was entirely preventable” and required urgent action to stop it happening again.
She said: “Sunak’s government took a cruel approach to refugees’ lives, failed to break the smugglers’ grip on dangerous journeys and refused to open safe alternatives. A new government is an opportunity for a radically different direction. Rather than continuing an anti-refugee approach, the new government must urgently open safe routes and restore the right to seek protection so people fleeing war and persecution have safe ways to reach the UK.”
In a report published on Friday the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, called on the UK government to uphold the right to asylum and for regional and international cooperation to deal with refugee issues.
Vicky Tennant, the UNHCR’s representative to the UK, said: “In recent years, arrivals across the Channel have generated a perception of crisis, often obscuring the desperation driving these journeys, as refugees move in search of safety and stability. While the challenges of addressing irregular movements of refugees and migrants are real, practical solutions are at hand that work for states and refugees.”
