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The sinking of a boat carrying migrants in the English Channel on Tuesday caused four deaths, including two children, according to a still provisional toll, increasing the deaths in these waters to seven this year.
A woman and two children, aged five and eight, are among the victims, according to French authorities.
Another 15 people have been rescued and searches continue overnight.
According to the testimonies of the migrants, “a person who could be a child is missing,” said the mayor of Loon-Plage, Hervé Tourmente, during a press conference.
The remaining survivors, men, women and children of Iranian nationality, according to the first elements, “are in a state of hypothermia” including one “serious” case, having been distributed by hospitals in Calais and Dunkirk.
The ship, apparently a tourist fishing boat, was described by an English sailor as capsized and sunk, after which a vast search operation with six ships and aircraft was launched.
The authorities are trying to “recover the maximum number of people” while the exact number of passengers is not yet established, but according to Tourmente they are “19 or 20”, specifying that the climatic conditions for the crossing “were not favorable”.
Today’s tragedy brings the number of migrants who died during an illegal crossing of the English Channel to seven since the beginning of 2020, according to data reported by the authorities, after four deaths occurred in 2019.
However, crossing attempts have multiplied since 2018: between 1 January and 31 August of this year, 6,200 migrants tried their luck, by rubber dinghy for the richest, by rowing, by kayak or simply a buoy for the others.
In 2019, 2,358 people who attempted the crossing were rescued and brought back to the French or British coasts, compared to 538 in 2018, according to data from the French Maritime Authority of the Channel and the North Sea.
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