Migrant dies on cross-Channel bid, boat continues to England

Asylum seekers try to reach a people-smuggler’s boat to cross the Channel in April – Copyright AFP/File Sameer Al-DOUMY

Beatrice Joannis

A migrant died on Sunday trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain on an overcrowded boat but authorities said dozens on the vessel refused to be rescued and continued their journey to England.

It was the seventh migrant death in the Channel since July 12 and the French maritime prefecture said there was a “new phenomenon” of would-be migrants dying from the crushed conditions in boats rather than from drowning. 

The authority said in a statement that 75 people were on the small boat that was first monitored off the port of Calais in the early hours of Sunday.

Rescuers took off 35 people, including one apparently “lifeless” who was taken by helicopter to a hospital at Boulogne-sur-Mer, the prefecture said. The migrant was declared dead at the hospital.

Others on the boat refused to return to France and continued the journey to England. It was not immediately clear under what circumstances the boat arrived in England.

The maritime authority said that “given the risks of falling overboard or injury incurred by people in the event of forced intervention, the choice was made to let them continue their journey.”

– Crush ‘phenomenon’ –

The statement said there was a “new phenomenon of people dying at sea not by drowning but by illness or in a crush”.

Four men died on an overcrowded boat trying to reach Britain on July 12, an Eritrean woman on July 17 and another man two days later.

French officials said there were 86 people on the small boat involved in the July 19 incident and five had fallen into the sea, including the man who died.

Twelve migrant deaths were recorded in the Channel in 2023 but the toll has already reached 23 deaths for 2024, according to the maritime authority.

Flore Judet of the Auberge des Migrants charity blamed the policies of the governments involved, saying there was no “safe passage” possible for would-be asylum seekers and “repression” was used along the French coast.

Claire Millot of the Salam NGO said there was a “scary” number of people now packed on the migrant boats.

“The solution is not to destroy the boats. There are just more and more people on the boats that remain,” she said.

“The solution is to give (them) the opportunity to stay and to work.” Millot said the migrants were “needed”.

After the Labour party’s victory in the British general election in July, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France’s President Emmanuel Macron pledged to strengthen “cooperation” in handling the surge in undocumented migrant numbers.

Starmer has cancelled a plan by the former Conservative government to send irregular migrants to a holding camp in Rwanda. 

French authorities seek to stop migrants taking to the water but do not intervene once they are afloat except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns. 

Meanwhile, both governments are seeking to break the business models of the people-smuggling gangs who organise the crossings and are paid thousands of euros by each migrant for the risky trip. 

According to the latest UK government data, 1,500 migrants arrived in England on 27 small boats crossing the Channel in the week ending July 21.

This Saturday July 27 also saw an intense sequence of arrivals with 370 migrants coming to English shores aboard six different boats.