One more drama in the Channel. At least 5 migrants, 3 men and a woman as well as a granddaughter, died during an attempt to cross the Channel on the night of Monday April 22 to Tuesday 23 at Wimereux beach (Pas- de-Calais), we learned from a police Source, confirming information from the Voices from the North.
One person was also slightly injured. According to firefighters, the little girl is 4 years old, the three men are between 25 and 40 years old and the woman between 30 and 35 years old. The events took place at 5 a.m., when a small boat with more than 110 people on board took to the sea from Wimereux beach, according to the prefecture’s account.
In 2024, 15 people will die crossing the Channel
“After a first stranding on a sandbank, the boat set sail again“, indicated the prefecture. “A crowd movement apparently occurred in the overloaded boat, causing several victims.” The investigation was entrusted to the public prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer. The prefect of Pas-de-Calais must go to the site for a press briefing at noon.
The attempted crossing took place on calm seas and with clear weather, but a temperature barely a few degrees above zero. According to a Source among the rescuers, the survivors were disembarked at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, a handful of kilometers south of Wimereux. With this tragedy, at least 15 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Channel since the start of 2024, according to an AFP count.
This toll is already higher than that of 2023, when 12 migrants died in these same circumstances, according to the Channel and North Sea Maritime Prefecture. The last tragedy dates back to March 3 with the death by drowning of a seven-year-old girl in the Aa canal in Watten (North) while she was on a small boat with 15 other migrants.
Black sequence
At the end of February, a 22-year-old Turk died after falling from his boat off the coast of Calais and two other migrants went missing. An Eritrean was indicted and imprisoned on Saturday in this case. On the night of January 13 to 14, five migrants, including a 14-year-old Syrian teenager, died in Wimereux (Pas-de-Calais) while trying to reach a boat already at sea in water at 9 degrees.
Twelve migrants lost their lives in 2023 while trying to cross the Channel, according to the Channel and North Sea Maritime Prefecture. That same year, 29,437 migrants reached the English coast illegally, compared to 45,774 in 2022, a record year, according to figures from the British Interior Ministry.
