A migrant has died and 72 others rescued from a boat carrying more than 110 people trying to reach the UK.
Their boat was being monitored by a rescue vessel in the Gravelines area overnight from Thursday to Friday, which picked up the migrants after they called for help, the French coastguard said.
The crew found one person needing CPR and a rescue helicopter was dispatched, but the migrant was pronounced dead.
Three others were found injured, including one who required urgent medical care, according to a translation of a statement from the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.
It came after 494 migrants arrived in the UK on Thursday, the first to successfully cross the Channel in 10 days.
A migrant has died and 72 others rescued from a boat carrying more than 110 people trying to reach the UK, the French coastguard reported (file pic)
The seven boats that made the crossing were the first since August 17 when 250 people arrived.
Some 16,391 migrants have crossed the Channel in 2026, down 43% on the same time last year and a 17% drop from the same point in 2024.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will not be ‘complacent’ about the falling numbers, and that there is ‘more we must do’.
She added: ‘That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes.’
