A migrant has died after attempting to cross the English Channel to get to the UK, French authorities have confirmed.
The Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said one person was found dead on the beach of Wissant, near Calais, on Thursday morning after the discovery of a boat filled with water.
Two other people were found with them suffering from hypothermia.
French authorities said they were treated by emergency services before being taken to a local hospital.
It comes after another migrant died attempting the dangerous crossing on Wednesday.
It is believed the person was unconscious when they were pulled from the water and pronounced dead as rescuers returned to the dock.
Another has been reported as missing.
Patel
Priti Patel recently claimed that people crossing the Channel are “not genuine asylum seekers” and just want to stay in hotels.
Speaking to MPs, the home secretary claimed single men arriving via small boats are “economic migrants” and the Home Office’s use of hotels as asylum accommodation had acted as a “pull factor” for people to enter Britain illegally.
400 rescued
French authorities said more than 400 people were rescued during a French-led rescue operation in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais on Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
UK authorities on Tuesday rescued or intercepted 456 people who had navigated busy shipping lanes from France in small boats.
According to data compiled by the PA news agency, prior to that at least 19,756 people had already reached the UK so far this year, bringing the total to more than 20,200.
This is more than double the total for the whole of 2020.
Record crossing numbers
At least 853 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK on small boats in a single day on Wednesday – a new record for the current crisis.
The Home Office confirmed UK authorities had to rescue or intercept this number of people from 25 incidents.
The arrival tally eclipses the previous daily record of 828 set in August and is the highest number of crossings ever recorded in one day in the current crisis, according to data compiled by the PA news agency.
It comes after French authorities said two migrants died this week while attempting the journey and several more were feared to have been lost at sea last week.
More than 21,000 migrants have made the crossing to the UK so far this year, analysis by PA shows. This is more than double the total for the whole of 2020.
In 2019, Home Secretary Priti Patel promised to make migrant crossings an “infrequent phenomenon” by spring 2020 and then pledged in August last year to “make this route unviable”. During this time, the Government has agreed to pay France millions of pounds to increase security on its northern coast.
Campaigners and aid charities have repeatedly called on ministers to overhaul the asylum system in light of the soaring numbers.
Related: Watch: Patel says migrants just want hotels as three people are lost in the Channel