4 migrants die while attempting to cross the English Channel from northern France

PARIS (AP) — Four migrants have died while trying to cross the English Channel on an inflatable boat from France to the U.K., French authorities said Friday.

The migrants’ vessel capsized and punctured off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer, in northern France, the prefecture responsible for the region said in a statement. Sixty-three people were rescued by the French coast guard.

A French navy patrol boat spotted the overcrowded vessel early Friday as it deflated off the French coast. Several people were “drifting in the water while others were still clinging to the broken rubber dingy,” the statement said.

Navy vessels, a fishing boat and a Navy helicopter joined the effort. Survivors were brought to the shore in Boulogne to receive medical attention and temporary shelter, the statement also said.

Migrants trying to reach the U.K. risk drowning as they try to cross the busy English Channel, often aboard crowded, unseaworthy boats.

French maritime officials responsible for the Channel and the North Sea warned anyone who plans to cross the Channel to reconsider due to the many risks involved in the perilous journey. The channel is one of the busiest waterways in the world, with more than 600 commercial ships sailing through it daily, and weather conditions are often difficult due to strong winds that prevail 120 days a year, their Friday statement said.

“It’s dangerous even when the sea seems calm,” they said.

The Boulogne public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, suspecting intentional homicide, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, Jacques Billant, said while visiting the site of the tragedy.

Billant said the human smuggling rings who operate in the area and arrange the illegal crossings at astronomical prices were responsible for the deaths.

“I repeat it with the greatest force, these are criminal networks that are putting migrant populations at unconsidered risk,” Billant told reporters. “Setting sail in an overloaded boat, with particularly unfavourable weather conditions like those this morning, is certainly risking death.”

Friday’s tragedy in the channel comes amid a continuing flow of people making the journey to the U.K. The latest figures from Britain’s Home Office, which deals with immigration issues, show that 62 people travelled across the Channel in one boat on Thursday, taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 14,120.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who took over earlier this month after the Labour Party’s election victory, has launched a Border Security Command designed to crack down on people-smuggling gangs orchestrating the crossings. A commander for the new entity has not yet been appointed.

“The further loss of life in the Channel ... is truly awful. My thoughts are with all those affected,″ Cooper wrote. “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 leader of Britain’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, underscored the pressure to address the issue in a post on X Friday.

“The new government had better start moving fast,” he said.

Last month, British authorities rescued 80 migrants at sea after a small boat got into difficulty while crossing the English Channel from France.

An estimated 30,000 people made the crossing in 2023, according to U.K. government figures.