A migrant has tragically died during a desperate attempt to cross the English Channel on a tyre inner tube, French authorities have confirmed.
The incident unfolded in the Pas-de-Calais region early on Wednesday morning, after emergency services were alerted to a group of individuals attempting to launch the makeshift flotation device into the sea.
When French rescue vessels arrived at the scene, they found two people in the water—one in cardiac arrest and the other suffering from hypothermia.
Despite immediate life-saving efforts, the individual in cardiac arrest was pronounced dead at the scene. Both were taken ashore to Boulogne, where the surviving migrant continues to receive medical treatment.
The latest tragedy comes as nearly 120 migrants successfully reached British shores today, amid a brief improvement in weather conditions. Several small boats made the perilous journey across the Channel, with UK Border Force assisting arrivals at various landing points along the southern coast.
French maritime authorities say they are also monitoring three additional small boats, still in French waters, that are making steady progress toward the UK.
This morning’s arrivals mark the first migrant landings in more than a week, following a previous surge of crossings that saw nearly 2,300 migrants reach Britain in a 10-day period.
Authorities on both sides of the Channel say people smugglers are exploiting gaps in weather patterns to launch multiple overcrowded and unsafe boats, often with makeshift flotation devices like dinghies and inflatables, and now in some cases, tyre inner tubes.
French officials have warned of the increasingly dangerous methods being used in attempts to cross one of the busiest and most hazardous shipping lanes in the world.
The UK government continues to face pressure to tackle the issue of illegal Channel crossings and dismantle the networks of organised crime profiting from migrant smuggling operations.
