Two people have reportedly died and a search and rescue operation is under way off a French beach after migrants set out to cross the English Channel hours after the Home Secretary failed to agree a new beach patrol deal.
An emergency helicopter could be seen searching the area, and French maritime authorities were seen hauling people out of the water.
French newspaper La Voix Du Nord reported that two migrants have died and one is missing.
The two people were pulled from the water but pronounced dead a few minutes later, the newspaper said. Medics treated another person for hypothermia before they were taken to hospital in Dunkirk.
Some 50 migrants, including children, were seen struggling to board a small boat off the coast of Gravelines, France, during an attempted crossing on Wednesday morning, while at least 12 French police officers were present in the beach area.
Shabana Mahmood signed a last-minute two-month extension to the current arrangement on Tuesday, just before the near £500 million deal aimed at reducing the number of departures was due to end at midnight.
Operational contracts will continue to be funded by £16.2 million as the UK and France thrash out a longer-term agreement.
A Home Office spokesperson said Ms Mahmood is “driving a hard bargain” with Paris “getting more bang for our buck”.
When the deal was announced in 2023, the then-Tory government said the £478 million package would fund a new detention centre in France and hundreds of extra law enforcement officers on French shores.
The number of crossings has risen in the following years, with some 41,472 people arriving in the UK by small boat in 2025, and Ms Mahmood is under pressure to bring numbers down.
The Home Secretary has previously been understood to be pushing for a new deal to include performance-related clauses that would link funding to the proportion of boats intercepted by the French.
French government ministers have criticised the UK for making demands that risk the lives of asylum seekers.
According to Le Monde, Xavier Ducept, France’s junior minister for the sea, told a French parliamentary commission of inquiry last week: “What we want is for … the British to contribute to funding interception systems, which are very expensive.
“But they must not make this funding conditional on a type of efficiency that could be extremely dangerous for migrants, for the (security) services, and for France … rescue comes first. And the law.”
So far this year, some 4,441 people have arrived in the UK on small boats.
