Since the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel were sealed off in 2018 to prevent migrants from trying to cross to the UK by truck, every year has seen at least one fatal sinking of "small boats," the compact inflatable boats whose use has exploded in recent years for people trying to cross the Pas-de-Calais Strait.

At dawn on Saturday, August 12, an inflatable dinghy trying to reach the English coast was carrying 65 to 66 men – the vast majority Afghan men, with a few Sudanese and minors. It capsized in the English Channel off Sangatte (in the north).

Six Afghans died, and there was still uncertainty on Sunday as to whether any passengers were still missing. "We don’t know if we’re really looking for anyone," said the Maritime Prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea, which had reported one or two possible missing persons the previous day as the search continued in the Strait.

"It’s pretty hard to deal with, they’re human beings. (...) We’ll never get used to bringing back dead people," the skipper of the dinghy Notre-Dame du Risban, told Agence France-Presse. The dinghy belongs to the French National Sea Rescue Society and picked up five of the six exiles found dead and brought their bodies back to Calais. But "there will be more tragedies," he predicted. The migrants "want to get through, they are trying everything, they gave it their best shot (...), it won’t ever stop."

Some 60 survivors from the sinking ship were rescued alive. Thirty-six were taken to the port of Calais by the French coastguards, and 22 or 23 were taken to Dover by the British, said the Maritime Prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea in a press release. The boat, an inflatable dinghy recovered with a puncture, will be examined, according to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office, which handed over the investigation to the Paris prosecutor’s office on Sunday.

The national jurisdiction for combating organized crime (Junalco) in Paris has taken charge of this investigation, which has been opened for "manslaughter and unintentional injury, aiding illegal residence and criminal conspiracy," according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. Junalco has referred the case to the border police, the coast guard research section, and the Office for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Migrants.

Since Wednesday evening, crossing attempts have multiplied with the return of nice weather. London recorded 755 arrivals on Thursday alone, which is a record since the beginning of the year. There are also around 1,000 migrants still waiting to cross, according to the French authorities.

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