At least 12 migrants died on Tuesday, September 3, in the worst shipwreck of the year in the English Channel. The tragedies have been happening one after another since the beginning of the summer, when crossings of the Channel on makeshift boats became particularly numerous, on increasingly crowded vessels.
A provisional but already very heavy toll. This Tuesday, September 3, in the morning, a makeshift boat carrying 65 migrants broke up. At least twelve migrants died while trying to reach England, according to a provisional toll given at the end of the day by Gérald Darmanin, the resigning Minister of the Interior and confirmed by the maritime prefecture of the Channel.
According to the elected representative of Tourcoing, the victims are mostly women, some minors.
A tragedy that already makes 2024 the deadliest year since the start of Channel crossings on makeshift boats, indicates AFP.
The boat got into difficulty off Cap Gris Nez late in the morning with more than 60 people on board, the maritime prefecture reported. 51 people “were saved” but two of them are still in critical condition, said Gérald Darmanin.
An investigation has been opened, particularly for aggravated involuntary manslaughter. No arrests have yet been made at this stage.
37 deaths in shipwrecks since the beginning of the year
The deadliest shipwreck in the English Channel was on November 24, 2021, when 27 people died. Last year, a total of 12 deaths were recorded by the authorities. A number that has tripled in 2024, even though the year is not over.
With Tuesday’s shipwreck, at least 37 people have lost their lives in these crossings since January 2024, making it the deadliest year since the start of the phenomenon of makeshift boats on the Channel.
The year began with a first tragedy. On January 14, five people lost their lives in Wimereux, including two teenagers. On February 24, a 22-year-old Turkish national was found dead. A few days later, on February 28, a Turkish migrant died after falling from his boat in distress.
On 3 March, a boat with sixteen people on board sank on the Aa Canal in Watten, a 7-year-old girl died. On 19 March, a body was discovered in the Aa Canal. The body appears to correspond to one of the missing persons from the shipwreck on 3 March.
On April 23, five people, including a 4-year-old girl, were found dead off the coast of Wimereux. A few days later, on May 4, a migrant died in a canal near Dunkirk.
On July 12, four deaths were recorded. On July 17, an Eritrean woman was found dead. A deadly month of July because two days later, a man was found dead.
In late July, a 21-year-old woman was crushed to death by other passengers on an overloaded boat, and two other migrants died in a shipwreck on August 11.
Gérald Darmanin calls for a “migration treaty” between London and the EU
In the first six months of 2024, illegal crossings of the Channel to the United Kingdom reached a record number, according to British authorities, who on Tuesday counted the arrival by this means of 21,615 migrants since January.
Having come to power at the beginning of July, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he wanted to speed up the processing of asylum seekers’ files while toughening up the fight against people smugglers.
Late in the afternoon, Gérald Darmanin went to Boulogne-sur-Mer to meet with rescuers and elected officials. During a press briefing, Gérald Darmanin said that it is necessary to find an agreement with Great Britain to establish a “migration treaty between Great Britain and the European Union”.
The former mayor of Tourcoing believes that finding an agreement with the British will be a task for the “new government as soon as it is appointed” and that his successor will have to tackle it.
Margaux Boddaert with Alicia Foricher with AFP
