Two migrants die during attempt to cross English Channel

Two migrants have died off the coast of France during an attempt to cross the English Channel.

Six other migrants were rescued, with one of them taken to hospital.

It comes a day after the government signed an extension with France over current arrangements on beach patrols as part of efforts to reduce the number of Channel crossings.

The French maritime prefecture said the latest incident started when a small boat headed towards the beach at Gravelines, near Calais, at around 9.30am on Wednesday.

A group of about 30 migrants was waiting for it.

Eight people were pulled onto a rescue boat when they got into difficulty, but two of the migrants could not be saved, officials said.

The group of migrants, including children, was seen struggling to board the small boat.

At least 12 French police officers were present in the Gravelines beach area at the time.

A French navy helicopter carried out a search as part of attempts to ensure nobody was left in the water, the French authority said.

On Tuesday, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a two-month extension to the current arrangement with France over Channel crossings, while the countries thrash out a longer-term agreement.

It came hours before the £478m deal, put in place in 2023 by the then Tory government, was due to end.

The package was set up to fund a new detention centre in France and hundreds of extra law enforcement officers on its shores.

Tuesday's extension means operational contracts will continue to be funded by £16.2m of UK government money.

A Home Office spokesperson said Ms Mahmood is "driving a hard bargain" with Paris to get "more bang for our buck".

Ms Mahmood has previously been understood to be pushing for a new deal to include performance-related clauses that would link funding to the proportion of boats intercepted by the French.

Some 4,441 migrants arrived in the first three months of 2026, according to the latest Home Office data.

This is 33% lower than the number who had reached the UK by this point in 2025, which was 6,642.

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Refugee charity Care4Calais said it was a "tragedy that another two lives have been lost to our deadly border" and called for "safe routes" to be introduced so people could claim asylum in the UK.

(c) Sky News 2026: Two migrants die during attempt to cross English Channel