At least five people die trying to cross the icy English Channel

At least five people died early Sunday morning in icy waters off a beach in northern France as they tried to cross the English Channel into Britain, the latest in a series of tragedies in recent years that have highlighted the inability of governments to tackle both sides of the waterway. to deter attempts at the dangerous crossing.

The people were found dead near a beach in the town of Wimereux after their boat was “reported in difficulty nearby” around 1:45 a.m. and several passengers tried to reach shore, French maritime authorities said in a statement. rack.

More than 30 people were rescued, two of whom were in serious condition, the statement said. One person was found unconscious and hospitalized, and another had “severe hypothermia,” the statement said. It added that the French coast guard had deployed several ships in the area “to continue the investigation at sea and search for people still adrift.”

French authorities did not identify the people who died or say where they came from, and they did not specify the causes of death. It was not immediately clear what problems the boat was experiencing. Local prosecutors have opened an investigation.

French maritime authorities said crossing conditions had improved after several days of bad weather, but that water temperatures in the English Channel were about 9 degrees Celsius, or about 48 degrees Fahrenheit. They also noted that the Channel is one of the busiest maritime routes in the world, with more than 400 commercial ships per day.

“It is a particularly dangerous sector, especially in mid-winter, for insecure, overloaded boats,” maritime authorities said.

A tugboat chartered by the French navy could not get very close to the migrant ship on Sunday because the water was too shallow, but it did deploy a rigid inflatable boat that picked up several people at sea and dropped them off on the beach. maritime authorities said. Other migrants were rescued directly on land by French security forces or lifted by a navy helicopter, she added.

French maritime authorities say a dozen people died trying to cross the waterway last year. One of the highest death tolls in recent years occurred in 2021, when 27 people died after their boat capsized during a single crossing.

Many people trying to reach Britain by waterway have fled their homelands in the Middle East or Africa and gathered in small makeshift camps on the coast of northern France before attempting to cross in small rubber boats or to hide in trucks that took the Channel Tunnel.

The number of crossings fell by 36 percent last year, the British Home Office saidwith more than 26,000 attempts prevented.

While Sunday's incident took place on the French side of the waterway and the British coastguard was not involved, the tragedy comes at a time of political reports about the arrival of asylum seekers traveling by boat to Britain flared up.

This week, British parliamentarians will debate controversial legislation that will attempt to revive a government plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. the Supreme Court in Britain ruled this illegal last year.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative government has pledged to halt small boat arrivals, which make up only a fraction of asylum seeker arrivals in the country. total migration in Britain – but have become a powerful symbol. The Conservatives have made deterrence one of their flagship issues in the run-up to this year's election.

“It breaks my heart to hear about it, but it just shows that we have to stop the boats, we have to stop this illegal human trafficking,” said David Cameron, the British Foreign Secretary. told the BBC on Sunday.

British and French authorities agreed last year that Britain would pay France more than $600 million over three years to help pay for drones, a new detention center and hundreds of extra police officers to patrol beaches in northern France – one of several agreements between the two countries the past few years have closed for years to try to reduce the number of crossings.

Mr Cameron insisted on Sunday that “the only way you can ultimately stop the boats is by destroying the people smugglers model”, by making sure the route from France to Britain “doesn't work”. But human rights groups have said the current British asylum model is failing and has high human costs.

Sonya Sceats, the chief executive of Freedom From Torture, a charity that supports asylum seekers in Britain, said it is “survivors and refugees who are paying the price for this government's inhumane and punitive policies.”

She added: “We urgently need an asylum system that is, at its core, welcoming, fair and compassionate.”