A CHILD has tragically died today after falling off an “overcrowded” small boat crossing the English Channel.
The horrific incident on Sunday morning followed two women dying in similar circumstances yesterday.
Cécile Gressier, prosecutor in the French port town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, said the child’s body washed up on nearby Écault beach.
Ms Gressier said: “An investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances of the death.
“The victim’s age and nationality have not been determined.”
Other sources at the scene suggested that the deceased was a young teenager.
Emergency services commander Jonathan Caruso said 48 other migrants who were on the same boat were rescued after falling into the sea.
The dinghy is the understood to have “continued on to England” with around 50 still onboard.
The latest death means that at least 21 people have died this year as they attempt to reach Britain from France on a small boat.
Boulogne prosecutors have opened a criminal enquiry into all the weekend deaths, as they try to find the people smugglers responsible for launching the boat.
Children were among three who died on the route earlier this month after they were crushed at the bottom of a boat.
At total of 78 migrants died in 2024 while trying to reach England in the same way.
This was a record since smugglers started launching small boats full of migrants in 2018.
In April 2024, a criminal enquiry was launched following the deaths of five migrants including a little girl around Wimereux, near Calais.
The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have pledged to “strengthen cooperation” to fight the people smugglers, but they are regulary criticised for not doing enough.
Both have hoped that their “one-in-one-out” plan will in time provide a deterrent for would-be asylum seekers if they believe they risk being quickly sent back.
But more than 32,000 people have crossed so far this year, and the boats continue to launch.
It comes as shock figures revealed how the UK population has grown by 750,000 in a year – the equivalent to the size of Leeds.
The startling increase, in the year to June 2024, was driven almost entirely by international migration and recorded as the second largest rise since the 1940s.
