A boat carrying dozens of migrants breaks into the English Channel off the coast of France, killing 12

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France — A boat carrying migrants tore apart in the English Channel Tuesday as it tried to reach Britain from northern France, sweeping dozens of people into the treacherous waterway and killing 12, authorities said.

Most of the victims are believed to be women, some under 18, and many passengers were not wearing life jackets, officials said, with one calling it the deadliest migrant accident in the Channel this year.

“Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat split open,” said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel near Boulogne-sur-Mer, where a first aid post had been set up to treat victims. “If people can’t swim in the choppy waters … things can go very quickly.”

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Europe’s strict asylum rules are pushing migrants north

Europe’s increasingly tough asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have driven them north. Before Tuesday’s accident, at least 30 migrants had died or gone missing trying to cross to the UK this year, the International Organization for Migration said.

Rescuers pulled a total of 65 people from the English Channel on Tuesday during a search that lasted more than four hours, said Lt. Etienne Baggio, a spokesman for the French agency that oversees the stretch of sea where the boat broke apart. Doctors confirmed that 12 people had died, he said.

Another 12 people were hospitalized, two of them in very serious condition, authorities said.

Adam Beernaert, director of the Civil Protection Authority, whose staff cares for rescued migrants once they reach land, said the people his team helped Tuesday were traumatized. “What needs to be said is that they should not cross,” Beernaert told the AP. “The sea is not easy. Weather conditions are constantly changing.”

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Deadliest migrant boat disaster in the English Channel this year

Baggio called it the deadliest migrant boat tragedy in the English Channel this year. In July, four migrants died while attempting to cross on an inflatable boat that capsized and sprang a leak. Five others, including a child, died during another attempt in April. And five dead were pulled from the sea or found washed up on a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the darkness and cold of January.

Many of the people on board the ship that broke apart in the English Channel on Tuesday did not have life jackets, Baggio said. He said the boat was an inflatable. Three helicopters, a plane, two fishing boats and more than a half-dozen other vessels were involved in the rescue operation.

In another tragedy at sea on Tuesday involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe, a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, leaving one person dead and 22 missing, Libyan authorities said.

The agency overseeing the rescue operation in the English Channel said the boat ran into trouble at Gris-Nez Point between Boulogne-sur-Mer and the port of Calais further north. The sea temperature off northern France was about 20 degrees C, or about 68 F.

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French and British authorities respond to tragedy

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin went to Boulogne-sur-Mer to meet those involved in the handling of what he described as the “terrible shipwreck.” He said the boat was fragile and small — less than 7 meters (23 feet) long — and that smugglers were increasingly cramming more people aboard such vessels. Most of the people on the boat were believed to be from Eritrea and most of the victims were women, he said.

Last week, the leaders of France and the United Kingdom agreed to step up cooperation on illegal migration across the Channel.

“We absolutely need — and this is a very important point — to restore special relations with our British friends,” Darmanin said Tuesday. He later told the AP that to successfully tackle smuggling networks, immigration laws between the U.K. and France would need to be harmonized.

“These problems have been going on for 30 years now, and it is absolutely essential that we find solutions,” said Barbarin, the mayor of Le Portel.

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called it “a horrific and deeply tragic incident” and paid tribute to French rescue workers “who undoubtedly saved many lives, but sadly could not save everyone.”

“The gangs behind this appalling and unscrupulous trade in human lives are cramming more and more people into increasingly unseaworthy rowing boats and sending them out into the Channel even in very bad weather,” she said.

“They care about nothing but the profit they make, and that is why – in addition to mourning the terrible loss of life – the work to dismantle these dangerous and criminal smuggling rings and strengthen border security is so critical and must continue apace.”

At least 2,109 migrants have attempted to cross the English Channel on small boats in the past seven days, according to data from the British Home Office updated on Tuesday. The data includes people found in the channel or on arrival.