31 migrants dead after boat capsizes in Channel off northern port of Calais

TIL Desk/World/Paris/ Thirty-one migrants died when their inflatable boat sank off Calais in northern France, the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has announced. The boat had set out to cross the Channel to the UK. According to the International Organisation for Migration, the incident which happened on Wednesday is the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014.

“Around 2 p.m., a fisherman reported the discovery of about fifteen bodies floating off Calais,” French radio reported. French President Emmanuel Macron ordered an “immediate reinforcement of resources for Frontex at the external boarders of the EU,”.

France will not let the Channel become a “cemetery,” Macron said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: “I am shocked, appalled and deeply saddened by the loss of life at sea in the Channel. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Now is the time for us all to step up, work together and do everything we can to stop these gangs who are getting away with murder.”