“It's horrible. It's another loss of life”: eight migrants die in the Channel, 46 deaths since the start of the year

Eight migrants died in the sinking of their clandestine boat near Ambleteuse (Pas-de-Calais) on the night of Saturday to Sunday, bringing to more than 45 the number of candidates for exile to Great Britain who died in the Channel in 2024.

An overloaded boat, few life jackets, and a boat that tore apart on the rocks as soon as it reached the sea: eight migrants died in this shipwreck on Sunday, bringing to at least 46 the number of candidates for exile to Great Britain who died in the Channel in 2024.

The victims of this shipwreck that occurred early in the night near Ambleteuse (Pas-de-Calais) are "men who are clearly adults", declared the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, during a press briefing on the Ambleteuse sea wall. Six survivors were hospitalized in relative emergency, including a ten-month-old baby with hypothermia, he added.

The clandestine boat had nearly 60 passengers, “from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran,” and “only one person in six was equipped with a life jacket”, Mr Billant stressed.

The boat left from “the Slack sector”, a coastal river whose mouth is located between Wimereux and Ambleteuse, and arrived “ran aground” on a rocky point and “clearly tore itself apart on the rocks,” the prefect explained.

This tragedy occurred less than two weeks after the worst shipwreck of the year in this region, which left twelve dead on September 3.

According to the prefect, it brings to 46 the number of deaths in such clandestine crossings since January, confirming that 2024 is by far the deadliest year since the start of the phenomenon of makeshift boats to cross the Channel in 2018.

The Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor's office has opened an investigation for "aiding the entry and stay of illegal immigrants in an organized gang, with the aggravating circumstance of endangering the lives of others", Patrick Leleu, deputy prosecutor, told AFP. No arrests had been made by mid-morning on Sunday, he told the press alongside the prefect.

“It's horrible. It's another loss of life”, reacted David Lammy, head of British diplomacy, to the BBC. “The French and British states must rethink their migration policy immediately", claimed on X, the Auberge des migrants, an association helping exiles, describing the Channel as a "deadly border".

Perilous crossings

Thanks to a favorable weather window, many attempts to cross have taken place in recent days. In 24 hours between Friday and Saturday, “200 shipwrecked people were rescued”, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Prémar) reported on Saturday evening.

Over the course of the day, “18 attempted boat departures were monitored” by the Cap Gris-Nez Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Centre, it said.

In Ambleteuse, after the shipwreck during the night, a second departure took place around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Christel [BIEN Christel] Leclair, a volunteer in a local association, reported to AFP. The departures, “it's all the time, winter, day, night, summer”, […] as soon as the sea is calm", she noted.

“The boats are increasingly loaded, they don't have life jackets, maybe an inner tube, there are children, pregnant women, babies", she lamented. “We are sad, helpless.”

According to figures from the British authorities, the boats arriving on British shores since January 1st have an average of 52 passengers each, compared to only 13 in 2020.

This year, in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, “20 illegal immigration networks have been dismantled […], leading to the arrest of 77 people and the deferral of 59", assured Prefect Billant.

Due to the lack of sufficient legal passage routes, “people continue and will continue to take the same risks, regardless of the number of checks and resources deployed at the border", reacted Charlotte Kwantes, national coordinator of Utopia 56, another association helping migrants. “The smugglers only take advantage and abuse of a system that leaves them all the space”.

After the shipwreck of September 3, the resigning Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had called for the signing of a “migration treaty between Great Britain and the European Union” to try to put an end to illegal departures.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 22,000 migrants have arrived in England after crossing the Channel by boat, according to British authorities.

Elected in July, the British government of Keir Starmer has promised to tackle illegal immigration by increasing the number of migrant deportations and fighting against people smugglers.