Migrants die overnight while attempting to cross English Channel as asylum death toll rises

French authorities were called shortly after 1.15am after being alerted to an incident on a small boat boarded by as many as 50 people.

The vessel found itself in difficulty just shortly off the coast of France.

Jacques Billant, prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said: "Several migrants lost their lives again in the town of Ambleteuse while trying to reach Great Britain as part of a sea crossing of the Channel."

A UK Government spokesperson said: "We can confirm there has been an incident in the Channel involving a small boat in French waters.

"French authorities are leading the response and investigation.

"We will not be commenting further at this stage."

It comes after French authorities rescued more than 200 people of coast of Calais over a 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday night.

More than 21,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats so far this year. Only 2022 has seen more people making the journey by this point in the calendar year.

So far more than 30 people have died attempting to reach the coast of Britain in 2024.

Earlier this month at least 12 people died when a boat loaded with dozens of migrants got into difficulty.

A pregnant woman and six children were among those killed in the incident on September 3, with up to 65 people rescued off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez.

Responding to the reports of more migrant deaths in the English Channel, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “It’s awful. It’s a further loss of life.”

He told the BBC he had been to the National Crime Agency and seen the “awful sort of rubber dinghies that people are coming across the Channel with, many of them, of course, not able to make it in these contraptions”.

The Government has been “discussing how we go after those gangs, in co-operation upstream with other European partners”.

Sir Keir Starmer will be in Italy on Monday for talks with counterpart Giorgia Meloni about her efforts to tackle the problem “and the work they have done, particularly, with Albania”.

The Prime Minister has said he is interested in the rollout of the policy, under which Tirana will accept asylum seekers on Italy’s behalf while their claims are processed.