A migrant has died after being pulled from the water while trying to cross the English Channel, the French coastguard said.
A rescue operation was launched after reports that a group of people tried to board a dinghy and got into difficulty in the Equihen-Plage area, in northern France, shortly after 9am on Wednesday.
The boat had set off further south near Hardelot-Plage an hour earlier, according to the authority.
Two people were rescued from the water, with one suffering from hypothermia while the other was in cardiac arrest.
The pair were taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer for treatment by onshore emergency services but the person who suffered cardio-respiratory arrest was declared dead despite efforts to save them.
The coastguard added search operations are under way off the coast of Pas-de-Calais looking for any other possible people in the sea.
The death is the third recorded by the French coastguard in its rescue operations in the Channel this year.
The International Organisation for Migration has reported several more migrant deaths which are believed to be linked to attempts to travel from mainland Europe to the UK this year.
Reacting to the death, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “We are again devastated by the news that someone has died trying to reach safety in the UK.
“Instead of merely doubling down on deterrence and prevention, our Government should seek arrangements with France to share responsibility – including by permitting some refugees to cross the Channel safely.
“Sadly, however, there appears little prospect of such a change of tack – and so smuggling gangs continue to thrive and fatalities in the Channel seem set to continue.”
It comes as the UK signed a “road-map” agreement with France earlier this month aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people smuggling.
A Government spokesperson said they are aware of the incident in French waters on Wednesday and that French authorities are leading the response and investigation.
Latest Home Office figures show no migrants crossing the English Channel have arrived over the last week.
Some 261 migrants arrived after making the journey in five boats on March 10, taking the provisional total of arrivals for the year to 4,395 people.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
