Three men were in custody Monday over the capsizing of a migrant boat in northern France in which a seven-year-old girl drowned, prosecutors said.
The suspects were aboard the overloaded small boat when it capsized on Sunday in the Aa canal, around 30 kilometres from France's northern coast.
"We have to work out who was responsible for this group, who brought the victims aboard the boat," prosecutors in the northern French city of Dunkirk said.
People attempting to reach Britain have increasingly been boarding boats on inland waterways to avoid stepped-up patrols on the French coast.
The body of a 7-year-old migrant girl was recovered from the Aa canal in northern France in the early hours of Sunday morning. She had been on small boat with her family and other migrants in an attempt to cross the Channel towards the UK.https://t.co/ZsNe963PJ5
— InfoMigrants (@InfoMigrants) March 4, 2024
Among the passengers in the capsizing were ten children aged seven to 13 and six adults, investigators said Sunday.
The latest death of a migrant trying to reach Britain followed just days after a 22-year-old Turkish man was killed and two more people went missing in the English Channel off Calais.
A total of 78 migrants attempting to cross to Britain were pulled from the sea by French rescuers overnight from Saturday to Sunday, the maritime authority for northern France said.
One group of 11 people was retrieved after they ran aground on a sandbank.
Further rescue operations were underway on Monday morning, with fair weather apparently encouraging more crossing attempts.
More than 670 people reached Britain from France in small boats in February, according to British interior ministry figures, compared with 29,437 over the whole of 2023.
(With newswires)
