Two migrants have died while attempting to cross the English Channel overnight, the French coastguard has confirmed.
The pair reportedly lost consciousness on a boat carrying nearly 80 people, which left the shore from Gravelines.
A rescue operation was launched by the French Navy to recover the two people and 10 others who needed help.
First responders performed first aid while on the vessel, but it was later confirmed two had died.
Those who were rescued were taken to Calais. The remaining migrants onboard continued their journey to the UK under French Navy surveillance.
Pictures showed people wrapped in blankets being brought ashore on a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent, on Wednesday morning. Others disembarked from an RNLI lifeboat amid reports that hundreds of people had made the crossing to Britain overnight.
It comes just days after another person was confirmed dead after a small vessel sank. The Maritime Prefect of the Channel and the North Sea said on Monday that 62 people were pulled from the water after an “overloaded” boat broke up overnight.
Gunes Kalkan, Head of Campaigns at charity Safe Passage International, said: “It’s been another devastating week in the Channel, with more people needlessly losing their lives in search of safety.
“These losses can’t be prevented whilst people fleeing war and persecution don’t have safe routes to ask for protection here.
“We need international cooperation with European nations to be focused on providing safe routes and protection, through a refugee visa and expanding family reunion.”
Some 49 people arrived in Britain in one boat on Tuesday, according to the latest Home Office figures.
It brings the provisional total of arrivals for the year so far to a record 12,748 people.
This is up 29% on the number recorded at this point last year and 75% higher than the same point in 2023.
