A two-year-old boy, a woman and two men died trying to cross the English Channel, French authorities have confirmed.
They died in “two tragedies” involving two overcrowded boats off the coast of France, the Prefect of Pas-de-Calais region confirmed.
Jacques Billant, said in the first incident on Saturday, the French coastguard responded to a boat carrying nearly 90 people on board which was suffering engine failure.
A total of 15 people were recovered from onboard to a tow vessel called l’Abeille, including the boy who was unconscious and despite a medical team being scrambled by helicopter, he was declared dead.
The French interior minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X that the boy had been “trampled to death”.
Mr Billant said the other 14 migrants, including a 17-year-old who suffered burns to his legs, were taken to the port of Boulogne to receive care before being questioned by police.
The rest of the occupants were allowed to continue their journey to the UK, Mr Billant said.
In the second incident, a boat with 83 people on board which had sailed from the Calais area, suffered several engine failures which caused panic on board leading to some of the occupants falling into the sea who were all rescued.
Mr Billant said when 71 migrants were transferred from the inflatable boat to the Flamant – a French navy patrol boat, three people were found unconscious at the bottom of the boat.
He said they were “probably crushed and suffocated during the jostling and drowned in the 40 centimetres of water present in the boat”.
He added: “Despite the intervention of the doctors, they were declared dead. They are two men and a woman, all three around 30 years old.”
Mr Billant said the remaining 12 occupants attempted to continue their journey across the Channel, but were eventually rescued again and taken back to France.
Mr Billant said: “Two new tragedies occurred at sea this morning.
“The toll is very heavy, since we deeply regret the death of four people: two men, a woman and a child.”
He added the migrants rescued on Saturday were from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq.
Mr Retailleau revealed the child was "trampled to death in a boat", calling it a "terrible tragedy". He blamed people smugglers, stating they "have the blood of these people on their hands".
The fatal incident comes after the Home Office confirmed 395 migrants arrived in the UK having crossed the English Channel on Friday in the first arrivals in five days.
The latest arrivals, who travelled in seven boats, bring the total for the year to 25,639.
This compares to 25,330 by the same date last year and 33,611 in 2022.
Some of those arriving on Friday were pictured wearing life jackets as they were brought to shore at Dover on a Border Force vessel.
The arrivals came on the same day as the UK and other G7 nations agreed an anti-smuggling action plan designed to boost co-operation on the issue following talks in Italy.
The Home Office said this includes joint investigations and intelligence-sharing in a bid to target criminal smuggling routes.
The action plan also details “working collaboratively” with social media companies to monitor the internet and different platforms to prevent them being used to enable migrant smuggling and people trafficking.
This includes calling on social media companies “to do more to respond to online content that advertises migrant smuggling services”.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“As we have seen with so many recent devastating tragedies in the Channel, 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.
“We are making progress, bolstering our personnel numbers in the UK and abroad. Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and enhance our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute these evil criminals.”
