At least 12 migrants lost their lives off the northern coast of France on Tuesday while attempting to cross the Channel to reach England, marking the deadliest such incident this year, according to the French government after a large-scale rescue effort.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the death toll on X (formerly Twitter), adding that two more migrants were still unaccounted for.
Several others were injured after their boat, carrying dozens, encountered difficulties near Wimereux, a town approximately five kilometers (three miles) from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French coast.
A source involved in the investigation revealed that the victims included three minors.
According to Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, most of the deceased were from Eritrea. He noted that among the victims were ten females and two males, with half of them being minors.
The first response to the emergency came from the crew aboard a French government-operated ship, the Minck, as reported by naval officer Etienne Baggio.
French navy helicopters, fishing boats, and military vessels were all deployed in the rescue operation, he added.
This incident is the deadliest so far this year, a year that has already seen 25 deaths during migrant crossings, up from 12 in 2023.
For years, the French and British governments have tried to halt the flow of migrants, who pay smugglers thousands of euros per person to cross from France to England in small boats.
UK Interior Minister Yvette Cooper described the events on Tuesday as “horrifying and deeply tragic.”
She condemned the “gangs behind this heinous and ruthless trade in human lives,” accusing them of prioritizing profits over human lives.
Earlier this summer, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron committed to strengthening their “cooperation” to manage the rising number of undocumented migrants.
However, UK government data shows that on Monday alone, 351 migrants made the crossing, contributing to a total of 21,615 so far this year.
The Channel crossing is notoriously dangerous. In November 2021, 27 migrants died when their boat capsized, the worst single such disaster to date.
While French authorities attempt to prevent migrants from setting out, they only intervene for rescue once the migrants are at sea, citing safety concerns.
Darmanin, who visited the site of the tragedy on Tuesday, told reporters that the EU and the UK should negotiate a new migration treaty.
He argued that the European Union should “re-establish a traditional migration relationship with our British friends and neighbors,” adding that British financial contributions to France for preventing irregular migration cover only “a third of what we are spending.”
The increasing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel from France to England have been a significant source of tension in post-Brexit relations between Paris and London.
Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, under pressure to reduce these crossings, struck a deal with Macron in March last year to increase British funding for more French police along the coast.
Under that agreement, London committed to increasing its financial contributions to France, totaling 541 million euros ($575 million).
However, Darmanin emphasized on Tuesday that “the tens of millions of euros we negotiate every year with our British friends” are insufficient to stop the flow of migrants, many of whom, he said, seek to reach Britain to reunite with family or “to work in conditions that would not be acceptable in France.”
Starmer has since scrapped a plan by the previous British Conservative government to send irregular migrants to a holding camp in Rwanda.
The British government is now planning a “major surge” in returning irregular migrants to countries such as Iraq, as announced by an official on Thursday, in an effort to clear an asylum backlog.
Meanwhile, both governments are working to dismantle the business models of people-smuggling gangs, who charge migrants thousands of euros for the perilous journey.
However, Steve Smith, head of the charity Care4Calais, argued that increased investment in security measures is “not reducing crossings.”
He stated, “It is simply pushing people to take ever greater risks to do so. It’s time to end these tragedies and establish safe routes.”
