Two men died and two women suffered severe burns today after a fire broke out aboard an overcrowded migrant dinghy attempting to cross the English Channel to Britain.
French rescuers watched helplessly as the tragedy unfolded off the coast near Berck, south of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Panic erupted among the 80 men, women and children on board after the outboard motor appeared to catch fire, reportedly following a fuel leak.
The boat was about a mile into the English Channel when French rescue vessels reached the area, but they were unable to intervene.
The deaths came as another group of migrants was brought ashore at Gosport in Hampshire last night, amid renewed protests.
The 149 migrants had departed from a beach in Normandy on Sunday morning. French rescue vessels accompanied them into British waters, where RNLI crews picked them up. They were later taken by road to Dover for processing.
Police, anticipating further protests, have established a dispersal zone covering the whole of Gosport.
Under the order, anyone gathering in the historic naval port can be arrested if they fail to leave after being instructed to do so by a police officer.
Hampshire Constabulary has also prohibited protesters from wearing face coverings intended to hide their identities. Six people were arrested in Gosport last night.
Channel crossings continued today, with photographs showing migrants boarding an overcrowded dinghy on the beach at Plage d’Ecault near Boulogne in northern France
Migrants walk along the beach while being watched by a French official
Jean-Marc Lamblin, skipper of the Berck lifeboat, witnessed the incident unfold off Berck this morning.
Speaking to the Voix du Nord [Voice of the North] news outlet, he said: ‘When we arrived, we counted at least 80 people on board, and there was a terrible smell of petrol.
‘The boat was overloaded, but everything was calm at first. The people were pleased to see us arrive – the boat was moving and they knew they would be escorted [to Britain].
‘They were using shoes to bail out water – we are used to seeing that.’
Mr Lamblin continued: ‘At that point in the operation, nobody was calling for help. The boat was making slow progress.
‘But we saw the migrants carrying the babies and children away from the middle of the boat and moving them towards the sides.’
Within minutes, screams and shouting broke out as those on board began pleading for an immediate rescue.
Mr Lamblin said: ‘Among the people crowded into the bottom of the boat, we pulled out a young woman who had suffered severe burns to her lower body from a mixture of seawater and petrol.’
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Two Somali women, aged 20 and 26, had been engulfed by flames. One was ‘weeping and in a state of total panic’ after losing sight of her daughter, Mr Lamblin said. The child was later found on dry land.
He said: ‘Finally, we made one last approach. That was when we pulled out two men in cardiac arrest.
‘We performed CPR on them for 43 minutes on board, assisted by a nurse,’ but they were soon declared dead.
The dead were aged 35 and 45. Their names and nationalities have not been released.
Last week, a ten-year-old boy and two women were crushed to death in an overcrowded migrant mega-dinghy.
The child – who was Eritrean – suffocated in the disaster, alongside the adults, who were both in their 30s.
They had boarded the craft at Sangatte beach, Calais, in the early hours of last Monday, along with around 102 others.
The flimsy dinghy, which was provided by people smugglers charging around £1000 per place, was only designed for 20 people, so soon started to sink in the water.
Some 10 others were injured on the vessel, which was described by the prefect as a ‘water taxi’.
This meant it arrived relatively empty from an inland waterway, before picking up passengers from a number of beaches, including Wissant and Sangatte.
French prosecutors have opened criminal enquiries into all the tragedies, and judicial police are investigating.
The latest deaths mean that at least 26 people, including women and children, have died in the Channel this year as they tried to get to Britain.
Many have drowned, while others have been crushed to death in overcrowded boats.
The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
Multiple attempts at crossings have taken place from the coast of northern France over the last few days, as the smugglers take advantage of calm seas and good weather.
In total, almost 19000 migrants have reached England on dinghies since January.
The provisional total for Channel crossings this year is 19,451.
This is down 43 per cent on this time last year and 23 per cent below the figure at this stage in 2024.
