Two women have died and 16 people have been injured trying to cross the English Channel in a small boat, French authorities have said.
The vessel, which was carrying 82 people, set out overnight from Hardelot beach, close to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer on the west coast of France, but its engine failed and it began to drift, said the secretary-general of the Pas-de-Calais prefecture.
A French maritime gendarmerie boat was able to rescue 17 people, and brought them to Boulogne-sur-Mer, while the makeshift vessel ran aground with 65 others still on board, Christophe Marx told a press briefing.Two women were found dead inside the boat, most likely from suffocation, Marx said.
He said the women are thought to have been “crushed or asphyxiated”, which can happen when there are “too many people packed in” on a vessel.
Three others were injured with serious burns caused by fuel at the bottom of the boat.
The women were believed to be in their 20s and to have come from Sudan, according to Marx, although some reports have suggested one of them was a teenager.new multimillion-euro deal last month aimed at reducing the number of migrants crossing the English Channel, with increased police patrols and enhanced surveillance in northern France.
So far this year, more than 6,000 migrants have reached the UK after crossing the channel, down 36% from the same period last year, a drop that may partly reflect more unsettled weather.
Before Sunday’s deaths, migrant aid group Utopia 56 said that at least 172 people have died at the French-UK border over the past three years, including 123 at sea.
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