At least five people die trying to cross English Channel in France

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At least five people died in icy waters off a beach in northern France early Sunday (local time) as they tried to cross the English Channel to travel to Britain, The New York Times reported.

The people were found dead near a beach in Wimereux after their boat was "reported in difficulty nearby" around 1:45 am (local time) and several passengers tried to reach the shore, according to French maritime authorities, according to The New York Times report.

According to the statement, more than 30 people were rescued, two of them were in serious condition. One person was found unconscious and was hospitalised, and another had "severe hypothermia," the statement said. It further said that the French Coast Guard had deployed several ships in the region "to continue investigations at sea and search for any people who are still adrift."

The French authorities did not reveal the identity of the people who died or say where they were from and they did not mention the causes of death. It was not clear what kind of difficulty was faced by the boat. Local authorities have initiated a probe into the matter.

The French maritime authorities said that crossing conditions had improved after several days of bad weather. However, the water temperature in the English Channel was about 9 degrees Celsius. The French maritime authorities stated that the Channel is one of the world's busiest maritime routes, with more than 400 commercial ships per day.

The maritime authorities said, "It's a particularly dangerous sector, especially in the middle of winter, for precarious, overloaded boats," The New York Times reported. A tugboat chartered by the French Navy was not able to get close to the migrant vessel on Sunday as the water was too shallow. However, the French Navy deployed a rigid-inflatable boat that carried several people at sea and dropped them off on the beach, according to the maritime authorities.

The authorities stated that other migrants were rescued directly by French security forces on land or were winched up by a navy helicopter. In 2023, a dozen people died while trying to cross the waterway, according to French maritime authorities.

One of the highest death tolls in recent years came in 2021 when 27 people died after their boat capsized during a single crossing. Crossings have witnessed a decline of 36 per cent in 2023, according to the British Home Office, with more than 26,000 attempts prevented.

As the incident on Sunday occurred on the French side of the waterway, and the British Coast Guard had no involvement. However, the tragedy comes at a time when UK lawmakers are set to debate contentious legislation this week that will attempt to revive a government plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which the Supreme Court in Britain declared illegal in 2023.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government has pledged to stop the small-boat arrivals, which make up only a fraction of asylum seeker arrivals into the countr and even smaller number of overall migrations in Britain.

In 2023, the British and French authorities agreed that the UK will pay France more than USD 600 million over three years to help pay for drones, a new detention centre, and hundreds of additional police officers to patrol beaches in northern France, The New York Times reported. It is one of several deals that the two nations have signed in recent years to try to reduce the number of crossings.

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