Britain and France have signed a new three-year deal on security operations to stop the crossings – Copyright AFP\/File Sameer Al-DOUMY<\/p>\n
Bernard Barron with Anne Rolandin in Lille<\/p>\n
Two young Sudanese women appear to have suffocated to death on Sunday while trying to reach Britain from northern France in a small boat crammed with more than 80 people including pregnant women and children, officials said.<\/p>\n
This was the third such tragedy in just over a month.<\/p>\n
The women, aged around 20, were aboard a small boat carrying 82 people that set out to sea south of the town of Neufchatel-Hardelot, Christophe Marx, a local government official, told reporters. Officials believe the two victims are of Sudanese origin.<\/p>\n
Separately, Utopia 56, a migrant aid association, described the two victims as a 16-year-old child and a 20-year-old woman. One other victim \u2013 a pregnant woman \u2014 was in critical condition, the group said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t see the end of this story. No one has the real solutions. And it\u2019s tragic,\u201d Paulette Juilien-Peuvion, the mayor of Neufchatel-Hardelot, told AFP.<\/p>\n
She said she was sad to see \u201cthese young people trying to flee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were notably pregnant mothers among them. I heard about a pregnant mother who also had another child with her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The boat set out to sea south of Neufchatel-Hardelot,\u00a0about 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of Boulogne-sur-Mer, during the night from Saturday to Sunday.<\/p>\n
But \u201cthe engine wouldn\u2019t start\u201d and the boat began to drift, Marx said.<\/p>\n
Seventeen people were rescued at sea and taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer.<\/p>\n
The boat with the remaining 65 people on board eventually ran aground on a beach near Neufchatel-Hardelot, he said, adding that the two women had been found \u201cdead inside the boat\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did not drown,\u201d he said, indicating that the two most likely died from \u201csuffocation, as unfortunately often happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor of Neufchatel-Hardelot said the two women suffered cardiac arrest, suggesting that they might have been \u201ccrushed at the bottom of the boat when there are so many on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Policies are killing\u2019<\/p>\n
Three others suffered chemical burns \u201cdue to a mixture of fuel and seawater,\u201d the prefecture said.<\/p>\n
Fourteen more people had minor injuries and five of them were taken to hospital, officials said, citing the updated figures.<\/p>\n
They were \u201cbeing treated and will be interviewed by border police to determine who is responsible for this crossing\u201d, Marx said.<\/p>\n
An investigation has been launched.<\/p>\n
Utopia 56 said \u201cthe repressive\u201d policies of French and British governments were behind the latest tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepressive policies at the Franco-British border are killing,\u201d the group said on X. \u201cThese lost lives are the result of political choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is urgent to put an end to this deadly situation: open the borders, establish safe routes for passage, and charter ferries.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 1, two migrants died off the coast of Gravelines in northern France while attempting to reach the United Kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On April 9, two men and two women died near the village of Equihen-Plage, swept away by the currents.<\/p>\n
In 2025, at least 29 migrants died at sea in the region, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources.<\/p>\n
Last month, Britain and France signed a new three-year deal to stop undocumented migrants making the risky journey across the Channel in small boats.<\/p>\n
Under the deal, France pledged to increase law enforcement personnel on the coast by more than half, reaching 1,400 officers by 2029.<\/p>\n
According to French officials, the number of arrivals in Britain so far this year has been drastically cut from 2025.<\/p>\n
According to British figures, 41,472 people reached the United Kingdom illegally in small boats in 2025, the second-highest figure since large-scale crossings were first detected in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain and France have signed a new three-year deal on security operations to stop the crossings – Copyright…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,83,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-27754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-france","10":"tag-migration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116511285331938841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}