Just a day after 12 migrants died in a failed attempt to cross the English Channel, another boat carrying several dozen people appeared to be making another attempt to reach the UK from northern France on Wednesday.
Journalists on a beach in Wimereux broadcast live video of an inflatable boat carrying people, seemingly migrants, out to sea.
The beach is on the northern French coastline and close to the site of Tuesday’s deadly sinking.
The boat was so laden that some of those aboard, crammed side-by-side on the inflatable tubes, had their legs over the sides.
Many were wearing orange lifejackets.
A small grey patrol boat flying a French flag approached the inflatable at one point and a crewmember then tossed more orange life vests – about half a dozen of them – to people aboard the vessel, who caught them.
A larger patrol vessel – identified by maritime authorities as the French Gendarmerie’s coastal patrol vessel Armoise – was shadowing the inflatable from a distance.
The French maritime agency that oversees that stretch of the channel confirmed to the AP that an operation was under way to monitor the inflatable, in case it runs into difficulty or the people aboard request assistance.
The agency said that the Armoise was involved in that operation, accompanied by a smaller boat.
Even though journalists filmed it for more than an hour, it remained clearly visible from shore, with the small patrol vessel in attendance.
Resident Jean Marie Baheu said he saw the heavily laden migrant boat set off on Wednesday in front of his house.
“When the weather is good and there’s no wind, there are departures every day,” he said. “At the beginning, you’d see 20, 30 people. Now, it’s minimum 70, 80.”
The mayor of Wimereux pleaded for French and British officials to do more to limit the number of migrants attempting the often perilous journey.
“Unfortunately, every day is like this for us. The smugglers — a criminal network — continue with insistence to send people to their deaths in the channel. It really is unacceptable, scandalous. And it is high time that a lasting solution is found with Britain,” Mayor Jean-Luc Dubaele said by phone.
“Let’s ask ourselves the question: Why do they want to go to Britain? Because something is drawing them there,” he said. “They can ask for asylum in France. (But) none ask for the right to asylum in France. They all want to go to Britain. So it is high time that we sit around a table with the new British government.”
The boat that ripped apart on Tuesday, plunging 65 people into the sea, was one of several crossing attempts that day. British authorities said at least 317 migrants succeeded, arriving aboard five boats.
A French prosecutor investigating Tuesday’s sinking, Guirec Le Bras, said 10 of the 12 dead were women and six of the victims were minors. Many appeared to be Eritrean, he said.
The inflatable boat sank about five kilometers (three miles) off the French coast, he said. Maritime authorities said many aboard did not have life vests.
