A minor migrant and three other people died during an attempt to cross the Channel. Another, injured, was airlifted to a hospital. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, denounced on Twitter “a terrible tragedy”.
A new tragedy in the waters of the Channel. A minor migrant and three other people died during an attempt to cross the Channel, announced the Minister of the Sea, Fabrice Loher.
These new deaths bring to 50 the number of exiles who died in these crossing attempts in 2024. This is already three times more than in the whole of 2023.
The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, shared his emotion on social networks: “Today several people died trying to cross the Channel. A child was trampled to death in a boat,” he underlined, before continuing: “a terrible tragedy which must make us all aware of the tragedy that is playing out. The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who enrich themselves by organizing these death crossings.”
A rescue operation aboard a canoe
Rescuers recovered 14 people on board, the other passengers of the boat continued their route towards England, reported the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.
Premar specifies that it is not a shipwreck, the deceased child having been found in the boat, not in the water. The rescue operation took place between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Saturday morning. There is currently no information on the age or manner of death of the three other people.
On the night of September 14 to 15, eight migrants were killed in the sinking of a boat which had just left the French coast. On September 3, twelve people died when their boat broke up.
The year 2024 is the deadliest since the beginning of the phenomenon of Channel crossings by “small boats”, the name given to these makeshift inflatable boats, in 2018.
