Two women and a child have died trying to cross the English Channel after a mega-dinghy capsized off the coast of northern France.
According to the Pas-de-Calais prefecture, there were 105 people on board the vessel, which it described as a “water taxi”, when it capsized at around 10.30am local time on Monday.
“The situation is being assessed and remains subject to change. State services and rescue teams are fully mobilised,” the authority said in a statement.
Some passengers called the emergency services asking to be rescued and were being looked after, according to the Maritime Prefecture of the English Channel and the North Sea.
A rescue ship arrived in the port of Calais midmorning, from which people began to disembark.
So far this year, 22 people are known to have died while attempting to cross the English Channel from France to the UK, official data shows.
The latest incident comes as the UK government is set to open a new legal route for refugees that prioritises Afghan women and girls, and Palestinians.
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the revival of the UK resettlement scheme, which has been suspended since 2021.
She told the Labour Party conference that Britain must provide safe routes for vulnerable refugees so that those fleeing wars did have to use people smugglers.
However, she insisted that the routes had to be “capped and controlled”.
The British people had not given up on the belief that they should help save lives of those “fleeing war and persecution".
But “communities must be ready and able to welcome those who come here”.
When people saw the immigration system as fair, they were more hospitable to refugees, she told the Liverpool conference, but when they thought it unfair, “they grow less willing to tolerate difference”.
