Seven bodies were found in this area in one week. Another migrant boat set sail this Wednesday morning.
A body was discovered on the Calais beach on Wednesday morning, we learned from the prefecture, the day after the recovery of two other bodies in the Channel, in a context of numerous migratory crossings in recent days. An AFP correspondent saw the body on the beach, surrounded by police and soldiers. A migrant boat set sail from this same beach around 8 a.m. towards England, he noted.
This is the seventh body found in a week in this area. On Tuesday, two drifting bodies were discovered off the coast of Calais. The bodies were taken care of by the maritime gendarmerie and the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor's office opened an investigation, according to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Premar).
60 deaths trying to cross the Channel since the start of the year
Another body was found on Saturday morning on the beach of Sangatte, very close to Calais, and three on the beach of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, last Wednesday, the day when a migrant was also died in an attempt to cross.
Not counting the body discovered this Wednesday, the two recovered at sea on Tuesday and the one discovered on Saturday, not yet formally identified as those of migrants, at least 60 candidates for exile have died trying to cross the Channel since the start of the year. This makes 2024 the costliest year in human lives since the phenomenon of Channel crossings on small boats appeared in 2018.
