A baby died Thursday night after an overloaded migrant boat sank in an attempt to cross the English Channel. The French authorities confirmed that the boat, carrying dozens of people, ran into trouble off the coast of Wissant in northern France. The rescue efforts were successful, including a French navy patrol boat and a helicopter that successfully rescued 65 people; some have been found in water.
An unresponsive infant was discovered during the rescue operation. Calls to revive the infant were fruitless, and the child died. The local prefecture issued a statement indicating that when the rescuers arrived, the migrant boat was already fully loaded to capacity, and some of the migrants were in the water. Although it was possible to rescue those under distress, further searches later revealed the tragic fate of the infant. Baby death opens probe for French prosecutors.
The rising death toll of migrants trying to get into the Channel makes this incident another grim milestone: at least 53 people have died so far in 2024, the deadliest year for people undertaking such journeys since 2018. And there is one increasingly common factor behind these crossings: overburdened dinghies, with sometimes 50 or more people on board without life jackets or other proper safety equipment. Just over a month ago, 12, including six children and a pregnant woman, died in a similar boat disaster off the French coast.
Thus, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to do much more to eradicate these smuggling gangs over these perilous crossings. Refugee advocates, including Enver Solomon at the Refugee Council, have urged that the government needs to work on providing safe and lawful routes for asylum seekers rather than solely depending on disruption of these smuggling networks.
According to the official statistics from the UK Home Office, more than 26,000 migrants have managed to cross the Channel this year. The International Organisation for Migration also touched on this issue by underlining that the deaths in the Channel are preventable and demanding urgent action to put an end to the ongoing crisis.
