31 people died on Wednesday when a refugee boat capsized in the English Channel. The French police announced.
The accident occurred off the coast of Calais. Prime Minister Jean Castex spoke of a “tragedy”.
The crew of a French Navy boat saw several people floating in the water, said the Interior Ministry in Paris. Some of them could only be recovered dead. Other castaways were brought on board by the Navy, some of them unconscious.
As the Maritime Prefecture announced during the rescue operation, a fishing boat made the emergency call that several migrants were in distress in the English Channel. Three rescue ships and two helicopters were then used.
The number of attempted crossings from France to Great Britain has risen to 31,500 since the beginning of the year. About 7,800 people were rescued from distress at sea. In total, at least twelve people have died or are missing in 2021.
Migrants are often out and about on unseaworthy boats and pay high prices to smugglers. “One cannot stress enough how criminal the smugglers who organize these crossings are,” said France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday.