LILLE/CEUTA: Four migrants died in two separate attempts to cross the Channel from France to Britain, French authorities said on Thursday.
Three bodies were found on a small boat that approached the coast to pick up passengers near the port of Dunkirk on Thursday, the maritime prefecture said Another boat sank on Wednesday off the seaside town of Hardelot, leading to the death of one man, authorities in the Pas-de-Calais region said. Rescue services took six people, including a one-year-old, into their care.
Security forces “neutralised” the vessel, they said, without elaborating. Migrants are drawn into frequent deadly tragedies as they seek to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes on flimsy dinghies, hoping to reach Britain.
A woman died after reaching English waters last month following an illegal crossing from France, according to British and French authorities.
Hundreds swim to Spain’s Ceuta territory from Morocco
The vessel she was travelling in did not seek assistance during the crossing, but British authorities intercepted it and found an unconscious passenger, they said.
Britain’s government said Thursday that 752 migrants were detected arriving in small boats across the Channel the previous day, a daily record for this year.
The figure, released by the interior ministry, broke a previous 2026 record set in June of 710 arrivals in a single day.
The issue of tens of thousands of irregular migrants arriving in small boats each year has vexed successive British governments and fuelled support for the hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage.
However, the number of migrants crossing the Channel fell by 41 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period the previous year, according to interior ministry figures.
So far this year, 14 people have died trying to cross the Channel, according to a tally based on official French and British sources. At least 29 migrants lost their lives in the Channel last year.
1,500 enter Ceuta
Hundreds of migrants entered the Spanish north African exclave of Ceuta on Thursday, reporters saw, many of them having swum by sea around the frontier fence.
Migration from Morocco into Spain’s two north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, has long been a politically sensitive issue between the two countries, as thousands cross the border at times.
Reporters saw a stream of adults and children, most of them wet, entering the town. Discarded flotation rings and clothes had been left on the shore near where the frontier barrier meets the sea.
The president of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, said that 1,500 migrants had come to Ceuta by sea in the past few days. “We are in a situation of total humanitarian and social emergency,” he said in comments broadcast Thursday by Spanish television.
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2026
