Three die including child on Channel dinghy carrying 105 people

A 10-year-old child and two 30-year-old women died after a small boat attempting to cross the English Channel got into difficulty off the northern coast of France on Monday. Officials responded to a distress call from the boat, which was carrying 105 people, after it departed from Blériot Plage in Sangatte that morning.theguardian.com

The Pas-de-Calais prefecture says its initial findings point to trampling rather than drowning — a cause tied to how the boat was loaded, not to the sea. An investigation has been launched to determine the exact cause. Three passengers were confirmed dead by a medical team flown out by helicopter.

What the prefecture confirmed

Three passengers were treated on board but were later confirmed dead by an emergency medical team flown out by helicopter, the French Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said. Of the 102 other people on board, nine were treated by emergency services upon their arrival in the port of Calais, the prefecture said.straitstimes.com+1

François-Xavier Lauch, prefect of Pas-de-Calais, blamed the incident on smuggling networks, which he said expose vulnerable people, including children, to the deadly risks of crossings. At a press conference, Lauch said: "Apparently there was no drowning, it was likely crushing – which is just as dreadful, especially if we think of the 10-year-old child."

The prefecture described the boat as a taxi-boat, which requires migrants to wade out onto the water to board. Smugglers use taxi boats that leave quiet beaches with a small group and travel along the coast, picking up more people before crossing to the UK. The incident happened off Wissant.

How the taxi boat worked

France's maritime police said they received a distress call in the early hours from an inflatable dinghy carrying 105 people that had run into trouble in calm seas. A spokesperson for the local prefecture confirmed "a provisional total of three deaths and many more injured", adding that "sea conditions were calm – the weather is good". At 10.30am local time, six rescue boats were still at the scene searching for people in the water. All passengers on board requested rescue and were taken into care, and the dinghy had not sunk.

Three other people died after similar taxi-boat departures the previous week, French authorities said. Monday's deaths take the total number of migrants who have died so far this year to 20, according to Pas-de-Calais prefecture, against 21 in the same period last year. At least 29 people lost their lives last year trying to cross the Channel, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official French and British sources.aljazeera.com

Where the yearly totals stand

So far, 2026 has seen 18,609 people successfully make the Channel crossing, which is 42% lower than the same period in 2025 when 32,188 had crossed in small boats, according to the UK Home Office. The figure is also more than 25% lower than at this stage in 2024, when 25,165 people had crossed. The UK recorded its highest number of migrant arrivals so far this year on Wednesday, with 781 arriving in 10 small boats.

Two boats also reached UK shores the previous week without being intercepted by UK authorities, at Folkestone and Samphire Hoe in Kent. In July last year, France and the UK agreed on a "one in, one out" returns deal, which allows the UK to return some small boat arrivals while agreeing to take in the same number of people from France believed to have a legitimate claim to come to Britain.

What happens next

In April, France and the UK signed an agreement to strengthen operations to prevent crossings, with a significant increase in human, technological and intelligence resources. Last month, a plan put forward by Reform UK to deploy the navy to intercept and return asylum seekers arriving by boat triggered a dispute with France, whose Interior Ministry said the measure would breach international law.

In a separate incident on Monday, Reuters journalists in Gravelines, north of Calais, saw police fire tear gas to disperse a large group of migrants after slashing their inflatable dinghy before it could be put out to sea. Hours later, Pope Leo gave a speech in the northeastern French city of Metz, urging Europeans to welcome migrants fleeing war, persecution and hardship "as if they were part of one's own family".

The Pas-de-Calais prefecture has launched an investigation to determine the exact cause of the three deaths. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, was due on Monday to announce the reopening of a UK resettlement scheme for refugees, with about a quarter of those admitted expected to be Palestinians and women and girls from Afghanistan.