BOULOGNE MER: At least 12 migrants died off the northern French coast on Tuesday trying to cross the Channel to England in the deadliest such disaster this year, the French government said, as a major rescue operation was underway.

Announcing the death toll on X, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also said that two migrants were still missing. Several were injured after their boat carrying migrants ran into trouble off Wimereux, a town some five kilometres from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French coast. Darmanin said he was travelling to the area of the disaster to meet officials. “All government services are mobilised to find the missing people and treat the injured,” he said.

Emergency services were out in force and supplying urgent medical assistance, French maritime authorities said. A source close to the investigation said the dead included three minors.

Crew on a French government-operated ship, the Minck, were the first to become aware of the emergency and to respond, naval officer Etienne Baggio said. French navy helicopters, fishing boats and military vessels are being mobilised for the operation, which is still ongoing, he said.

It is the deadliest such disaster this year which has already seen 25 people die in migrant crossings, up from the 2023 death toll of 12.

UK interior minister Yvette Cooper called the deaths on Tuesday “horrifying and deeply tragic”. She criticised the “gangs behind this appalling and callous trade in human lives”, adding they “do not care about anything but the profits they make”.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024