Two women died overnight while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said Saturday, adding that some 60 others had been rescued.
The incident occurred south of the beaches of Neufchatel-Hardelot, when about 100 people were trying to get to the UK on a makeshift boat.
About 60 people “are currently being taken care of”, Isabelle Fradin-Thirode, an official in nearby Montreuil-sur-Mer, said.
A couple and their child suffering from moderate hypothermia were rushed to a hospital in Boulogne, she said.
The incident brings the number of Channel crossing deaths to at least 25 this year, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
Since January, a record 32,000 migrants have arrived in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats.
Under a recent Franco-British scheme, the UK can return them after arrival if they are deemed ineligible for asylum, including those who have passed through a “safe country” to reach UK shores.
In return, London will accept an equal number of migrants from France who are likely to have their asylum claims granted.
The move has not really discouraged migrants from making the perilous crossing as they have for the most part suffered acute hardship and dangers to come so near their ultimate goal.
On Friday, an AFP team saw hundreds of migrants in the Gravelines area in northern France preparing to cross the Channel from different points on the beach whenever the weather turned favourable.
Several migrants interviewed by AFP earlier this week in a makeshift camp at Loon-Plage near Dunkirk mirrored this sentiment.
Saad, a 30-year-old Palestinian from Iraq, told AFP; “If I stay here, I am dead. And if I go back home, I am dead.”
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© Agence France-Presse
