A migrant has died while attempting to cross the English Channel in a small boat, the French coastguard confirmed on Friday evening.
A total of 69 people were rescued after the vessel sank off the coast of Calais in France with only half of those onboard found to be wearing lifejackets. Two individuals were unconscious when brought onto a rescue vessel. Medics resuscitated one, while the other was later pronounced dead in hospital.
The other migrants were returned to Calais, and several attempted crossings were reported to the Gris-Nez surveillance and rescue centre that night.
A French vessel had been monitoring the small boat after it departed from Calais. Towards the end of the night, the boat began taking on water, prompting an immediate response from rescue crews.
The coastguard said, “The unconscious person who could not be resuscitated by medics was evacuated using a Belgian sea rescue helicopter to a hospital in Marck-en-Calais, where they were pronounced dead.” A French Navy Dauphin helicopter monitored the area where the boat sank “to confirm the successful recovery of all the castaways.”
Officials warned that the section of the Channel is “a particularly dangerous sector, especially in the middle of winter for precarious and overloaded boats,” due to its status as a busy shipping lane with difficult weather conditions. Additional “life-saving resources” were deployed in response to numerous reported crossings on Friday.
As of 10 February, 1,554 people had crossed the English Channel since the start of 2025. In 2024, a total of 36,816 people arrived in the UK on small boats, making it the deadliest year on record for migrant crossings, according to the United Nations’ migration agency.
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