A migrant has died after falling into the sea as he attempted to cross the Channel to Britain on a packed small boat, French authorities have said.
The man was among a dozen people who fell into the water off Hardelot in northern France, the French Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and North Sea said.
He was pulled from the sea and a helicopter transported him to land, where he was tragically declared dead.
It brings the number of deaths linked to crossings in overcrowded dinghies this year to a total of 57.
Many people have tried to make the perilous crossing today, setting off since early this morning because of good weather conditions, French authorities said.
On Wednesday morning, a deflated blue and black dinghy lay on the beach, a journalist on the scene reported.
Rescue services, including firetrucks with their lights flashing, had been deployed on the shore.
Rescuers led around 20 migrants into a nearby building to warm up.
Around two miles away from the coast, journalists saw six soaked migrants, some wrapped in survival blankets, sitting on a bench.
A member of the Utopia 56 charity working with migrants said that several people were suffering from ‘severe hypothermia’ after falling into the sea.
With British and French authorities seeking to crack down on people smuggling gangs, activists say traffickers are now herding larger groups of migrants into increasingly overcrowded and unsafe boats.
Utopia 56’s Celestin Pichaud said the situation was ‘more than dramatic’.
‘For several months, it’s been one person dying every five days’ trying to cross the Channel, he said.
‘Land and sea rescue services are completely overwhelmed.’
Increasingly more migrants and asylum seekers have crossed the Channel since 2018 despite repeated warnings about the perilous journey.
Drownings and deadly crushes on overcrowded boats since January have made 2024 the deadliest year for migrants trying to reach Britain by sea since 2018.
An Indian man died off the French coast on Sunday as he tried to cross the Channel.
On Wednesday last week, a woman and two men died after their small boat sank in the Channel off the northern port city of Calais.
The week before, a four-month-old baby died in an overloaded boat headed for the United Kingdom.
More than 26,000 migrants have landed on British shores since January 1, according to UK Home Office figures.
