Five migrants die in icy waters as English channel crossings resume

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Five migrants died trying to cross the English channel on Sunday morning, adding to mounting pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to design a workable plan to prevent people from taking the perilous journey.

About 70 people attempted to board boats launching from the beach near the French town of Wimereux into ice-cold waters on Sunday morning, according to a report from AFP. Five were found dead and a sixth was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

France’s maritime prefecture said coastguard boats and a helicopter responded roughly 15 minutes after the incident was reported and rescued most of the people.

Foreign secretary Lord David Cameron said the migrant deaths was “heartbreaking”, but underscored the urgent need to “stop the boats”.

He told the BBC’s Laura Kuensberg that “in an ideal world” the UK would send asylum seekers “straight back to France” but as that is not possible, the government is pursuing what “may be an unorthodox and unusual” policy of sending them to Rwanda.

“It’s about dealing with illegal migration, it’s about saving lives,” he said.

After a hiatus in channel since last month due to poor weather, 124 people arrived on three boats on Saturday, according to Home Office data. The deaths on Sunday morning were the first since December 15. 

“We cannot imagine the level of pain and suffering created by these situations,” said Nikolaï Posner, a spokesperson for Utopia 56, a charity working with migrants in Calais. He accused politicians of failing to “build solutions” that would prevent migrant deaths.

The news comes ahead of a crunch debate on the Conservative government’s controversial bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for their applications to be processed.

Several attempts to send migrants to Kigali have been blocked by court challenges. In November the Supreme Court…