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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Sami Quadri

Channel tragedy: Two women dead after boat carrying 100 people capsizes

Two women have reportedly died during an attempt to cross the English Channel.

Around 100 people had left northern France for the UK in a makeshift boat overnight Friday into Saturday, French media reported.

Around 60 people were rescued from the overnight incident and a couple and their child with moderate hypothermia were taken to a hospital in Boulogne, the reports said.

The incident happened south of the Neufchatel-Hardelot beaches between Boulogne and Le Touquet.

French newspaper La Voix Du Nord said the victims may have been Somali women and that they were at least the 20th Channel crossings deaths so far this year.

The number of migrants arriving in the UK is at a record for this point in the year since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018.

Last year, 50 people died while trying to cross the Channel, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard, in what is considered the deadliest year since the crisis unfolded.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has also reported several more migrant deaths believed to be linked to crossing attempts in 2024 and this year.

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