One migrant has died after a boat got into difficulty in the Channel between France and the United Kingdom and France.
Thirty others were rescued “safe and sound” — including five who were found on a sandbank — French authorities said on Friday.
According to initial information, the migrant vessel may have been trapped by the tide near the beaches of Berck-sur-Mer.
A male migrant — reported to be a young man from Sudan — was brought to shore unconscious but was later declared dead. It is the first migrant death that has been reported in the Channel in 2022.
French prosecutors in Boulogne-sur-Mer say they have opened an investigation into manslaughter.
According to French Maritime officials, a total of 30 migrants died while trying to cross the Channel in 2021, with a further four missing.
This includes 27 people who died when a boat sank off the coast of Calais on 24 November last year.
Meanwhile, more than 28,000 people successfully crossed the dangerous shipping lane last year, three times the number in 2020, as reported by the Press Association.
Despite worsening winter conditions, authorities estimate around 400 boats are still attempting to cross the Channel each day.
On Thursday, 60 shipwrecked people were rescued off the coast of Dunkirk and Calais in two rescue operations, according to the French Maritime Prefecture.