Britain's Home Secretary said the UK government “must and will do more” after a migrant died and another was left in a critical condition when a boat sank in the Channel.
More than 60 people were on board a boat as it began to deflate around 8km off the northern coast of France in the early hours of Friday morning, the French coastguard said.
The first group of people were pulled from the water at 1.15am local time in the French-led operation, with a total of 66 rescued and taken to safety within an hour.
Two people were found unconscious. One female casualty could not be resuscitated and a second person was flown by helicopter to a Calais hospital in a life-threatening condition, the French coastguard said.
In a post on X, Britain's Home Secretary James Cleverly described the incident as a “horrific reminder of the people smugglers’ brutality”.
Some 25,000 people have been “averted from crossing this year – but we must and will do more”, he said, adding: “My thanks to all those involved in the rescue. Every boat stopped is a potential life saved.”
The death is the latest in a series of tragic crossing attempts.
French authorities confirmed two people had died in a similar incident off the coast of France last month.
Two others died after trying to cross the Channel in separate incidents in August and November 2021, while an inquiry was launched last month after 27 people died when an inflatable boat capsized, also in November 2021.
More than 29,000 migrants have arrived in the UK this year after crossing the Channel. This is the second-highest annual total to date since records began in 2018.
It comes as the UK government presses on with plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda in a bid to curb Channel crossings.
Earlier this week British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak indicated he is open to making changes to his Rwanda Bill if they can be backed up by “respectable” legal arguments, in a bid to quell dissent among Tory MPs.
Sunak won a crunch vote with a 44-strong majority in the Commons on his emergency draft law aimed at reviving the stalled policy to deport migrants to the east African country’s capital, Kigali.
The UK Refugee Council’s chief executive Enver Solomon said it was “yet another terrible and avoidable tragedy”, adding: “These appalling deaths are becoming too common and there is an urgent need to put in place safe routes so people don’t have to take dangerous journeys across the world’s busiest shipping lane.
“Instead, the Government is pushing ahead with its unworkable and unprincipled Rwanda plan as well as shutting down existing safe ways to get to the UK.
“People flee persecution and violence out of desperation, to find safety and protect their families. The Government must take action now and respond in a compassionate way to prevent future tragedies and protect human life.”
British government minister Andrew Griffith told Sky News the confirmation of another migrant death in the Channel showed why the crossing was “not a safe route” and why Sunak was “cracking down on the terrible trade of people traffickers”.
But Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds called for “far more” to be done to break up the human trafficking gangs facilitating migrant boat crossings.
On Saturday Sunak will fly to Rome to meet with Italian premier Giorgia Meloni and Albania’s Edi Rama.
The talks “will be focused on our joint efforts to tackle illegal immigration and organised crime”, as well as “other shared challenges such as the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
