Two women died Saturday morning while trying to cross the English Channel from France to the UK on board a makeshift boat carrying other migrants, French authorities said.
Rescuers found the women in cardiac arrest but couldn’t save them, the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais region, in northern France, said in a statement. A couple and their child with hypothermia were transported to a hospital in Boulogne, it said.
The incident happened off the coast of the small town of Neufchatel-Hardelot. Local media say over 60 migrants were rescued overnight. The prefecture said police prevented several attempts at crossing.
According to the prefecture, 17 migrants have died since the beginning of the year while attempting to reach the UK on board small boats from the coast of the Pas-de-Calais region.
Earlier this week, a family of three, including a small child, became the first people sent to the UK by France under an agreement in which Britain returns migrants who enter the country without authorization and France sends vetted asylum-seekers.
The UK Home Office said this week that the arrival of the family was part of “critical first steps” in the program dubbed “one in, one out.” Four people who arrived in Britain by boat from France were flown back to France in recent days as part of the arrangement.
