Thirty-one migrants are killed by Reuters trying to cross the Channel into Britain

By Geert De Clercq and Ingrid Melander

PARIS (Reuters) – Thirty-one people, including five women and a girl, were killed on Wednesday after a rubber boat capsized as they crossed the English Channel from France to Britain in the worst catastrophe of migrants in waters separating countries. .

The canal is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world and the currents are strong. Excessive boats are often scarcely broken and are subject to waves as they try to reach the coasts of Great Britain.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said there were 34 people on board, 31 of whom were killed, two rescued and one still missing.

“There are two survivors … but their lives are in danger, they are suffering from severe hypothermia,” he said.

Darmanin said the nationalities and identities of the migrants were not known, and added that four human traffickers suspected of being involved in the accident had been arrested.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union’s Frontex border agency should get more economic resources to protect the EU’s external borders and prevent more migrants from coming to the northern edge of France.

He also called for an emergency meeting of European ministers to discuss the issue.

“France will not let the Canal become a cemetery,” Macron said.

More migrants than usual left the French Channel coast on Wednesday to take advantage of the calm state of the sea, according to fishermen, despite the extremely cold water.

A fisherman, Nicolas Margolle, told Reuters earlier Wednesday that he had seen two small boats, one with people on board and the other empty.

Another fisherman said he called rescue services after seeing an empty boat and about 15 people floating stationary, unconscious or dead.

Darmann said the migrant ship’s boat was inflated, and when rescuers arrived it was “inflated like an inflatable garden.”

Although French police have prevented more crossings than in previous years, it has partially limited the flow of migrants seeking to reach Britain – one of many sources of tension between Paris and London.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the deaths were “shocking and shocking”.

“My thoughts and sympathies are with the victims and their families … but this catastrophe underscores how dangerous it is to cross the Channel in this way,” he said after chairing a meeting of the emergency cabinet.

Although both governments have blamed the smugglers, some French politicians, including Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart, have blamed Britain for the problem, saying it needs to change its immigration policies.

Some rights groups said stricter surveillance was pushing migrants to take greater risks as they sought a better life in the West.

“Only reporting smugglers is hiding the responsibility of the French and British authorities,” said the Auberge des Migrants, a promotion group that protects refugees and displaced persons.

Ahead of Wednesday’s disaster, 14 people have drowned this year while trying to go to Britain, a local maritime prefecture official said. In 2020, a total of seven people were killed and two disappeared, while in 2019 four were killed.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters reporters saw a group of more than 40 migrants in France on a boat bound for Britain. Members of the same group were then seen by Reuters reporters arriving off the coast of Britain.