At least 3 killed on illegal crossing of the English Channel

“A wreck involving a water taxi took place today off the coast of Wissant,” they said, adding that they plan to hold a press conference in Calais just this morning.

With this incident, the number of people who have died since the beginning of the year has risen to 22 trying to cross the English Channel clandestinely, according to a count of the French news agency AFP based on official data.

All passengers on board requested rescue and were rescued, according to the regional authorities of the Channel and the North Sea, which confirmed that the vessel did not sink.

The rescue ship ‘Minck’ arrived at the port of Calais in the middle of the morning, where it began to disembark those involved, and some were removed on stretchers or wheelchairs or covered with emergency blankets.

Several fire and police vehicles were mobilized as well as a bus.

The “tax boat” technique, particularly risky, consists of using a boat to smuggle across the sea along the coast and then rescuing migrants directly in the water to avoid land surveillance.

Three bodies were recovered last week after chaotic matches of this kind in the Pas-de-Calais region.

Last week, the British authorities reported 781 illegal migrants arriving in the country, this year's highest daily total.

The crossings of the English Channel in improvised vessels began in 2018, and this year several records of people rescued or on board small boats have been recorded.

France and the United Kingdom have an agreement on the mutual return of migrants (“one in, one out”), which is in force until October, and which implies that migrants without documents crossing the English Channel from the French coast are returned to France provided that, in return, the United Kingdom welcomes, through legal routes, another refugee or asylum seeker on French soil.

The aim of this agreement, adopted last year by French President Emmanuel Macron and then British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is to combat human trafficking networks, demonstrating to migrants that irregular crossing will result in their immediate return to France, and that there are legal and safe ways to enter British territory.

Most migrants crossing the English Channel on small vessels come from countries marked by armed conflicts or authoritarian regimes such as Eritrea, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran or Somalia.