Seven-year-old girl drowns in Channel crossing tragedy

A seven-year-old girl died on Sunday after a boat carrying 16 migrants capsized in the English Channel. She had been travelling with her pregnant mother, her father and three siblings when the boat got into trouble off the coast of France in the early hours of Sunday morning, local authority Prefet du Nord said. Another couple, two men and six young children were also on board the “probably stolen” vessel, which was unfit to carry that number of passengers, officials added. All passengers were taken to hospital in Dunkirk. Her death came on a day when more than 300 migrants arrived in the UK, according to British authorities. Home Office figures show 327 people made the cross-Channel journey in eight boats on Sunday, taking the provisional total for the year so far to 2,582, at an average of 41 per boat. Officials said the stricken passengers were transported to a hospital in Dunkirk on the northern French coast and their lives were not thought to be at risk. A walker raised the alarm and police and firefighters attended the boat that was in the Canal de l’Aa in Watten, Prefet du Nord added. This week’s Home Office figures showed more than 2,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the strait between England and France. The number of Channel arrivals is 32 per cent lower than the total recorded this time last year (2,953) but 49 per cent higher than the total at this stage in 2022 (1,482). Some 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK after making the crossing in 2023, down 36 per cent on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022. The Home Office said there were no new arrivals on Monday or Tuesday this week, but 290 asylum seekers arrived across five boats last Sunday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made stopping the boats one of his top five main pledges to the electorate in January last year.

Seven-year-old girl drowns in Channel crossing tragedy

Fifteen other passengers taken to hospital in Dunkirk, northern France