The mayor of a French seaside town has criticised British policy, saying migrants are being encouraged to make dangerous cross-channel journeys.
Mayor of Wimereux, Jean-Luc Dubaele, claimed today that generous policies regarding work and benefits are causing people to risk their lives, dubbing it British 'El Dorado'.
It comes after five migrants tragically died trying to cross the Channel on Sunday night.
Dozens were pulled from the water during overnight rescue efforts in Wimereux, to the south of Calais.
French police officers patrol the beaches in Wimereux near Calais (file pic)
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Survivors of the tragedy were handed foil blankets to warm up before being taken by coach to a reception centre in Calais.
Mayor Dubaele said reform of the Anglo-French agreement on migrants, signed in the French town of Le Touquet in 2003 was urgently needed.
He said: "I am angry, like all the mayors of neighboring towns. We are suffering from human trafficking. At the political level, we will have to change the situation, and bang our fist on the table with the English.
"Migrants today want to go to England because they are well received there, they can work there without problem.
"'We must get back to the table with England and rework the Le Touquet agreements...let England be less of an El Dorado for migrants who arrive.
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A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel
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Meanwhile, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region Jacques Billant said criminal networks were endangering migrants, saying: "Going out to sea in 7C water means going to your death. With a lifespan limited to 10 minutes in the event of capsizing."
Foreign secretary Lord Cameron told the BBC: "It breaks my heart to hear about it...we've got to stop this illegal trade in human beings."
Four bodies were found at the scene by rescuers while a fifth was found washed up on the beach a few hundred metres away by a walker later that morning.
The deadly attempted crossing is thought to have been organised by people smugglers triggering a criminal enquiry.
Chief executive of the Refugee Council Enver Solomon said the Channel deaths 'must be a wake up call to take decisive action', including the provision of safe routes for those fleeing war.
According to charity Care4Calais, at least 30 of the asylums seekers rescued on Sunday were suffering from hypothermia - including a one-month-old infant.
Senior operations manager at Care4Calais Imogen Hardman said survivors were left traumatised by the incident.
She said: "'They were extremely traumatised, they were still soaked through and incredibly shaken up. They spoke with confusion and reiterated many times how cold they were and that water was.
"The water that those people was low as eight degrees which is really very cold and you have such a have a small amount of time to survive in that."
