Girl, 7, dies after attempt to cross the Channel as parents taken to hospital
A seven-year-old girl has been killed in the English Channel after migrants tried to sail to Britain, French authorities have said.
The tragedy happened shortly after 6.30am on the Aa river at the town of Watten, some 20 miles inland from Calais.
The 16 people on board the migrant boat, thought to have been stolen, were hoping to avoid police patrols, so as to enter the English Channel close to the Belgium border, and then travel onwards to the UK. The boat contained ten young children in all, as well as a pregnant women, and none were wearing life jackets, a local official revealed.
"It is a route that has been used by people smugglers before," said an investigating source. "On this occasion, the boat was overloaded and too flimsy to support those onboard, who included women and children.
"There was chaos in the water after the boat collapsed, and it led to a seven-year-old girl losing her life. Others were rescued, and taken to a sports hall in Watten, where they are being interviewed by police."
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The girl who died has not been named, and was thought to be travelling with her parents, who are also unidentified. The As river originates at the village of Bourthes and empties into the sea near Gravelines, close to Dunkirk.
"They were all getting on board from the quay at Watten when the boat collapsed,’ said Bertrand Gaume, prefect of the Hauts-de-France region. A passer-by watched the disaster unfolding while it was still dark, and alerted the emergency services.
"Gendarmes and firefighters immediately rushed to the scene,’ said Mr Gaume. "This boat, probably stolen, was not big enough to support so many people. It capsized shortly after these people got on,’ Mr Gaume added.
None of those on the boat were thought to be wearing life jackets at the time of the accident, which took place around an hour before sunrise. Local prosecutors immediately opened a criminal enquiry, working with judicial police, while gendarmes continued to search the water for any other possible victimes.
It follows three migrants going missing in thick fog and heavy winds in the Channel on Wednesday after their UK-bound small boat capsized. One was confirmed dead after his body was recovered, while two others are also thought to have drowned at sea.
Despite the poor conditions, people smugglers took advantage of a small break in even more severe weather to push out multiple migrant boats from French shores.
The latest fatality also follows five migrants dying while trying to get to Britain on January 14. Some 29,000 people reached the UK in small boats in 2023, despite the British government saying that stopping them was a priority.
It is trying to push ahead with a plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, despite the London Supreme Court ruling that the policy is unlawful. In August last year, six people died after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Channel off the French coast.
And in November 2021, at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
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