At least five migrants, including a child, died overnight during an attempt to cross the Channel from France to Britain, a French police source said on Tuesday.
The source, who did not wish to be named, said the circumstances of their death around the beach in the town of Wimereux, close to the resort of Boulogne-sur-Mer, were not immediately clear.
The news of the latest migrant deaths comes hours after controversial UK government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda cleared a final hurdle in parliament on Monday.
The UK government plans to deport some of those who enter the country illegally as a deterrent to migrants who risk their lives in leaky, inflatable boats in hopes that they will be able to claim asylum once they reach Britain.
5 migrants die trying to cross to UK via the Channel
5 migrants die trying to cross to UK via the Channel
The United Nations and Europe’s highest rights body have urged Britain to scrap the plan.
Britain’s interior minister James Cleverly said the government was doing all it can to stop dangerous small boat crossings on Tuesday.
“These tragedies have to stop,” Cleverly said on X.
Many migrants, from the Middle East and Africa, attempt the perilous sea crossing for what they hope will be a better future in Britain.
On March 3, a seven-year-old girl drowned in the capsizing of an overcrowded migrant boat in the Aa canal, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from France’s northern coast.
People attempting to reach Britain have increasingly been boarding boats on inland waterways to avoid stepped-up patrols on the French coast.
In late February, a 22-year-old Turkish man died, and two more people went missing in the Channel off Calais.
In January, five people including a 14-year-old Syrian died in Wimereux as they waded through chilly seawater to reach a boat off the coast.
Twelve migrants lost their lives last year trying to cross the Channel, French authorities say.
02:44
Bodies recovered after scores drown in year’s deadliest migrant shipwreck off Greece
Bodies recovered after scores drown in year’s deadliest migrant shipwreck off Greece
British officials processed 5,373 migrants landing on the shores of southeast England in the first three months of this year after crossing the Channel in small vessels, the British interior ministry says.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has been under mounting pressure to stem the number of crossings, particularly following a promise of a tougher approach to immigration after the United Kingdom left the European Union.
Reporting from Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Associated Press