Two Women and a 10-Year-Old Child Die on Overcrowded Dinghy in the English Channel

Three people — a 10-year-old child and two women — have died after a migrant dinghy carrying about 105 people got into difficulty in the English Channel early on Monday, according to French authorities.

The boat left Sangatte, west of Calais, at about 5am and sent a distress call near Blériot-Plage. French maritime police dispatched the rescue vessel The Ridens and a Navy helicopter; the remaining 102 passengers were brought to Calais, three in critical condition, with medics flown in by helicopter, according to The Times.

François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, said the deaths were likely caused by crushing rather than drowning. “Apparently there was no drowning. It was likely crushing — which is just as dreadful, especially if we think of the ten-year-old child,” he told reporters. An investigation is under way; the boat was designed to carry only about 20 people, according to The Sun.

Officials described the craft as a “taxi boat” — a method increasingly used by people-smuggling gangs, whose dinghies sail down the French coast collecting groups of migrants waiting in shallow water.

The deaths follow a surge of crossings in calm weather. Sky News reports Home Office figures showing more than 18,600 arrivals this year — about 42 per cent down on last year — with 781 people reaching Britain on Wednesday, the highest daily figure so far. Three others died attempting the crossing last week, and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered an urgent review by the Border Security Command.

Sources:

• Sky News — Two women and a child die attempting to cross English Channel
• The Times — Child and two women die on migrant boat in Channel
• The Sun — Two women & boy, 10, ‘crushed to death’ while trying to reach UK as dinghy capsizes in Channel