At least 12 migrants died off the northern coast of France on Tuesday while trying to cross the English Channel to England in the deadliest disaster this year, the French government said after a major rescue operation.
The ship ran into trouble off Wimereux, a town about five kilometres from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French coast.
According to Frédéric Cuvillier, mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, around 70 people were on board the ship that sank off the coast of northern France.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also announced the death toll from X and said two migrants were still missing.
A source close to the investigation said three minors were among the dead.
According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, the migrants who died were mostly of Eritrean origin. Among them, 10 were women and two were men, he said. Half of the total were minors. AFP reported.
The crew of a French government-operated ship, the Minck, was the first to notice the emergency and respond, said naval officer Etienne Baggio.
French navy helicopters, fishing boats and military vessels were mobilised for the operation, he said, adding that 53 people had been rescued.
This is the deadliest disaster of this year, with 25 people already dead at migration crossings, compared to 12 in 2023.
The French and British governments have been trying for years to stem the flow of migrants, who pay smugglers thousands of euros a head to travel from France to England aboard small boats.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called Tuesday's deaths “horrible and deeply tragic.”
He criticised the “gangs behind this atrocious and cruel trade in human lives” and added that “they care about nothing other than the profits they make.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron had pledged earlier this summer to strengthen “cooperation” to manage the rise in the number of undocumented migrants.
