Five Migrants Die Attempting Channel Crossing: French Police Source

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2024) 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.

It is just the latest such tragedy as migrants, many 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.