PARIS: French authorities announced the discovery Sunday of a body on a beach used as one of the launch points for migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing from northern France to the UK on flimsy inflatable boats.
Attempted crossings and deaths have surged in recent days. The prefecture of northern France's Pas-de-Calais region had previously reported that two women died Saturday before then, also saying that the body of a young man, “very likely" a migrant who had attempted the crossing overnight, was found Sunday morning on the long sandy beaches south of the port town of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
In less than 48 hours since Friday night, authorities counted 41 crossing attempts, some of them thwarted, along the Pas-de-Calais coastline that police patrol day and night, the prefecture said in a statement.
“The pressure along the coast is intense with extremely high numbers of departures. Law enforcement is intervening under particularly difficult conditions, marked by hostility and sometimes violence from migrants determined to leave at all costs,” the statement said.
But French police have previously also been observed using knives to slash and sink the inflatable boats of migrants who put up little or no resistance.
The two women who died Saturday morning were found in cardiac arrest following a failed attempt to cross the English Channel on a boat that drifted after its engine wouldn't start, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture said. It said that rescuers' efforts to revive them were unsuccessful.