A man has died after suffering a cardiac arrest on board a boat attempting to reach the UK, French authorities have confirmed.
A boat attempting to reach English shores turned back towards Equihen beach in northern France on Saturday morning.
When the boat arrived at the beach, a man was found on board in cardiac arrest, the Pas-de-Calais department’s sub-prefecture told the PA news agency.
Despite emergency services intervening at the scene, the man died soon after.
Later on Saturday an RNLI lifeboat carried migrants who have made the voyage into the Port of Dover.
Pictures taken by the PA news agency showed a group of migrants huddled under blankets and orange life jackets aboard the boat.
According to UK Home Office provisional statistics, almost 24,000 people have arrived on small boats in the UK in 2025.
An investigation is under way under the authority of the prosecutor to determine the circumstances of the man’s death, the French authorities confirmed.
Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said a nurse attempted to resuscitate the man on the beach, but was unsuccessful.
Jacob Burns, MSF’s project manager for migration operations in the UK, said: “Yet again we have a tragedy in the Channel, that is the consequence of the deadly, costly and ineffective security policies implemented by the United Kingdom and France.”
