Day after 12 deaths, other migrants risk their lives trying to cross the English Channel

A day after 12 migrants died when their small inflatable boat tore apart during a failed attempt to cross the Channel, dozens of others tried again on Wednesday on an overcrowded vessel from northern France as French patrol boats kept a close eye on the ship.

That migrants were prepared to risk their lives so soon after a dozen others lost their lives trying to cross the busy waterway from France to Britain underscored the scale of the problem for the French and British governments. It was the deadliest migrant boat accident in the English Channel this year.

The mayor of Wimereux, a French coastal town where Associated Press journalists filmed the overcrowded inflatable boat on Wednesday, called on French and British officials to do more to limit the number of migrants attempting the often perilous journey.

“Unfortunately, every day is like this for us. The smugglers — a criminal network — continue to send people to their deaths in the Channel. It is really unacceptable, scandalous. And it is high time that a lasting solution is found with Great Britain,” Mayor Jean-Luc Dubaële said by telephone.

“Let’s ask ourselves: Why do they want to go to Britain? Because there is something that draws them there,” he said. “They can claim asylum in France. (But) nobody is asking for the right to asylum in France. They all want to go to Britain. So it is high time that we sit down with the new British government.”

Cross-Channel migration was a major focus of the UK general election in July, which the Labour Party won convincingly and appointed its leader, Keir Starmer, as the new prime minister.

A French prosecutor investigating Tuesday’s sinking, Guirec Le Bras, said 10 of the 12 dead were women and six of the victims were minors. Many appeared to be Eritreans, he said. The inflatable boat sank about 5 kilometers (3 miles) off the French coast, he said. Maritime authorities said many of the people on board did not have life jackets.

Fishermen who recovered some of the bodies said they were moved to tears.

“The bodies of two women were very young. It hurt me. I cried all day. I couldn’t stop,” said Samba Sy Ndiaye, 53, who works aboard the Murex, one of two fishing boats supporting the French rescue operation.

Another crew member, Axel Baheu, said the body of a young woman — he estimated her to be between 15 and 20 — had a phone in a waterproof case around her neck, which began to ring as he pulled her from the water and checked her pulse, he said.

“That was difficult because you know very well that no one will ever answer,” Baheu said.

His father, Jean Marie Baheu, said he saw another heavily laden migrant boat leave in front of his house on Wednesday.

“If the weather is good and there is no wind, they leave every day,” he said. “In the beginning you would see 20, 30 people. Now it’s at least 70, 80.”

The inflatable boat seen and filmed by AP on Wednesday was carrying migrants, French maritime authorities confirmed. AP journalists estimated there were 40 to 50 people on board.

Many wore life jackets. A patrol boat flying a French flag approached the inflatable boat at one point and the crew threw more life jackets — about half a dozen — to the migrants.

The grey sea in the Channel was relatively calm and small waves crashed against the beach as people walked their dogs across the sand.

Still, the inflatable boat seemed to move slowly. Although journalists filmed it for more than two hours, it remained clearly visible from the shore, with the patrol boat buzzing around it and a larger one shadowing it from further away.

The French maritime agency that oversees that stretch of sea said the boats were keeping an eye on the inflatable in case any problems arose or people on board called for help.

In a statement to the AP, the agency said that while maritime law prohibits the use of improvised inflatable boats at sea, it is too dangerous to force them back to shore if the boats are heavily loaded.

“It is difficult to achieve with more than 50 people on board who stubbornly refuse to be rescued. The main risk is a stampede on board and then a capsize, these boats are neither stable nor reliable. The risk of loss of life is too high for a forced intervention, the choice was made to prioritize the protection of the people on board and by simply remotely controlling the navigation capabilities of these boats,” the statement said.

“So it is more a question of ethics than blind application of the law,” it added.

At least 21,720 migrants have managed to cross the English Channel so far this year, according to the UK government’s tally. That’s 3% more than the same period last year, but 19% lower than the same period in 2022.

The boat that broke apart on Tuesday, throwing 65 people into the sea, was one of several attempts that day. British authorities said at least 317 migrants succeeded, arriving on board five boats.

One of the first measures the new British government immediately implemented was to scrap the previous Conservative government’s plan to send some migrants arriving in small boats to Rwanda rather than seek asylum in Britain. Human rights groups criticized the plan.

Starmer has called the plan a “gimmick” and said it would not act as a deterrent. Instead, his government has opted to use some of the money saved by scrapping the program to set up a beefed-up border force to “crush” the criminal gangs behind the small boat arrivals.