Two women die during failed Channel crossing attempt

Two women died attempting to cross the English Channel on Saturday morning, French officials have told AFP news agency.

The incident happened overnight off the coast of northern France, when about 100 people set off by makeshift boat to try to get to the UK, authorities said.

Sixty people from the attempt were rescued and are "are currently being cared for by civil protection," according to French official Isabelle Fradin-Thirode cited by the AFP news agency.

A couple and their child suffering from moderate hypothermia were rushed to a hospital in Boulogne, she added.

French newspaper La Voix Du Nord reported that the two who died were both Somali women.

The incident overnight happened south of the beaches of Neufchâtel-Hardelot in the Pas-de-Calais region.

Separately, AFP also said the body of another migrant was found on Saturday morning in a canal leading to the sea in Gravelines, in a different incident.

At least 25 people have died so far this year trying to make the dangerous crossing in small boats.

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On Friday, AFP said its team saw "hundreds" of migrants in the Gravelines area in northern France preparing to cross the Channel from the beaches as soon as the weather turned favourable.

Earlier this month, three people died - likely in a crush on the bottom of a packed boat - off the coast of Calais during another attempted crossing.

Last year, 50 people died while trying to cross the Channel, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard.

More than 30,000 people have reached the UK in small boats so far in 2025 and more than 50,000 have crossed since Labour came into power in July 2024.

The UK government has come under increased pressure over the number of small boats crossing into the UK and asylum seeker applications.

Recently France and the UK agreed on a "one in, one out" returns deal, which was designed as a deterrent to stop boats from crossing the Channel. It proposes that for each migrant the UK returns to France, another migrant who had not attempted a Channel crossing but with a strong case for asylum in Britain will come the other way.

Sir Keir Starmer has previously called the crossings "totally unacceptable" and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the "vile" people-smugglers behind them are "wreaking havoc on our borders".