A day earlier, 12 migrants had died when their small inflatable vehicle broke down during a failed attempt to cross the river. English ChannelOn Wednesday, several dozen others attempted to cross on an overcrowded ship from northern France as French patrol boats watched it make its way through the seas.
That migrants were willing to risk their lives came so soon after a dozen migrants lost their lives trying to cross the busy waterway from France The accident in Britain underscored the seriousness of the problem for the governments of France and Britain. It was the deadliest accident involving a migrant boat in the English Channel this year.
The mayor of the French coastal town of Wimereux, where Associated Press reporters captured video of a crowded inflatable boat on Wednesday, urged French and British authorities to do more to limit the number of migrants making the often dangerous journey.
“Unfortunately, this happens to us every day. The smugglers – a criminal network – insist on sending people to their deaths in the canal. This is really unacceptable and reprehensible. And it’s time to find a lasting solution together with the UK,” Mayor Jean-Luc Dubayle said by phone.
10 dead, others in critical condition as migrant ship capsizes in English Channel
“Let us ask ourselves this question: why do they want to go to Britain? Because something is pulling them there,” he said. “They can seek asylum in France. (But) nobody seeks the right to asylum in France. They all want to go to Britain. So it is high time that we sit down at a table with the new British government.”
Cross-Channel migration was a major issue in Britain’s general election in July, which the Labour Party won a landslide victory and its leader Keir Starmer became the new prime minister.
On Tuesday, French prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, who is investigating the sinking, said 10 of the 12 dead were women and six of the victims were minors. He said many appeared to be from Eritrea. He said the inflatable boat sank about 3 miles off the French coast. Maritime officials said many of the people on board did not have life jackets.
Fishermen who recovered some of the dead bodies said they became emotional and had tears in their eyes.
“The bodies of the two women were very young. It made me very sad. I cried all day. I couldn’t stop myself,” said Samba C Ndiaye, 53, who works on a ship called the Murex, one of two fishing boats that helped in the French rescue effort.
Another crew member, Axel Baheu, reported that on the body of a young woman – he estimated her age to be between 15 and 20 – there was a telephone in a waterproof pouch around her neck. He said that while he was pulling her out of the water and checking her pulse, the phone started ringing.
“It was hard, because you know full well that no one will ever respond,” Baheau said.
Her father, Jean-Marie Baheu, said he saw another migrant boat loaded with huge amounts of luggage arrive in front of his house on Wednesday.
“When the weather is nice and there’s no wind, people come out every day,” he said. “In the beginning, you would see 20, 30 people. Now, the number is at least 70, 80.”
A boat full of migrants is rescued by a ship of the French Gendarmerie Nationale off the coast of Wimereux, France, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. A boat carrying migrants trying to reach Britain from northern France exploded in the English Channel on Tuesday, leaving dozens stranded in the dangerous waterway and killing 12 people, officials said. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
inflatable boat AP French maritime authorities have confirmed that the vessel spotted and filmed on Wednesday was carrying migrants. AP journalists estimated that 40 to 50 people were on board.
Many were wearing life jackets. A patrol boat flying a French flag approached the inflatable vessel at one point, and the crew gave the migrants more life jackets — about a half-dozen.
The grey sea of the English Channel was comparatively calm, with small waves crashing on the beach and people walking their dogs on the sand.
Still, the inflatable vessel appeared to be moving slowly. Although reporters filmed it for more than two hours, it was clearly visible from the shore, with patrol vessels circling it and a larger ship shadowing it in the distance.
The French maritime agency that monitors that sea area said the boats were monitoring the situation to make sure no one was in trouble or that the people on board had called for assistance.
In a statement to the AP, the agency said that although maritime law prohibits the use of floating inflatables at sea, it is too dangerous to forcibly bring the boats ashore when they are heavily laden.
The statement said, “With more than 50 people on board the ship refusing to be rescued, this goal is difficult to achieve. The main danger is of a stampede on the boat and then capsizing, these boats are neither stable nor reliable. The risk of loss of human life is too high to intervene under pressure, so it has been chosen to give priority to the safety of the people on board and monitor the navigation capabilities of these boats from a distance.”
It further said, “Therefore, this is more a question of morality than the indiscriminate application of the law.”
According to the UK government, at least 21,720 migrants have managed to cross the English Channel so far this year. This is 3% more than the same period last year, but 19% less than the same period in 2022.
The boat that capsized on Tuesday, carrying 65 people, was one of several attempts to cross the sea that day. British authorities said at least 317 migrants managed to cross the sea on five boats.
One of the first steps the new British government took was to cancel a plan by the previous Conservative government to send some migrants arriving in small boats to Rwanda rather than allow them to seek asylum in Britain. The plan was criticised by human rights groups.
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Starmer described the plan as a “gimmick” and said it would not work as a deterrent. Instead, his government has opted to put some of the money saved by abandoning the program into setting up a stronger border force to “dismantle” the criminal gangs behind the small boat arrivals.
