Two men have died attempting to cross from northern France to southern England by boat, French authorities said on Thursday – the first known migrant deaths in the Channel this year. France and the UK remain divided over how to intercept people making the dangerous crossing without risking lives.
The men, one from Afghanistan and the other from Sudan, died on Wednesday while attempting to board an inflatable dinghy that was carrying around 30 people, authorities in northern France said.
Another 111 people were rescued in several operations in the Channel the same day.
A Turkish national who was pulled out of the water after the fatal incident was arrested on suspicion of organising the crossing attempt, a French police source told news agency AFP.
The deaths came the day after France and the UK agreed to extend a migration deal to curb Channel crossings by two months to allow for negotiations on a longer-term agreement.
The UK wants to link funding to stricter interception targets, an approach France has warned could endanger lives.
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Channel deal extended
Under a 2018 agreement, the British government committed to financing surveillance and law enforcement operations in France to stop migrants from heading out into the Channel in small boats to reach the UK.
The deal was extended for three years in March 2023, when the UK agreed to pay France the equivalent of around €545 million over three years.
Just hours before the agreement was due to expire at midnight on Tuesday, both countries decided to extend operational contracts to give negotiators an additional two months.
"France and the UK are united in efforts to stop illegal small boat crossings," the British interior ministry said in a statement, adding that the UK would provide some €18 million to fund the extension.
According to the ministry, the deal has stopped some 42,000 migrants from making the crossing.
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Disagreement over targets
The UK is reportedly pushing for its financial contribution to be tied to a higher target number of boats stopped – a way for the UK to achieve "long-term value for money", according to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesperson.
French authorities stopped roughly a third of more than 6,000 attempted crossings this year, according to official UK figures cited by the British press.
Under pressure from the UK, France modified its intervention policy at the end of last year to allow for the interception of boats at sea under certain conditions – notably, before they take on migrants.
However, France has resisted giving officials greater powers to intervene when loaded boats are in the water, warning such interceptions could endanger lives and expose officers to prosecution. Instead, operations have focused primarily on stopping boats departing in the first place.
The fundamental principle guiding law enforcement “remains that of assisting anyone in danger at sea”, said Xavier Ducept, France's junior minister for the sea, during a parliamentary hearing on 26 March.
While France is happy for the UK to contribute to the high cost of intercepting boats, he said, it would not agree to "make this funding conditional on a type of efficiency that could be extremely dangerous for migrants, for the [security] services, and for France".
(with AFP)
