Channel migrant crossing kills 3, including boy, France says

Three migrants, including a 10-year-old boy, died on September 28 off the French coast while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said.

Local prefect Francois Xavier Lauch said the dinghy left the Sangatte area in northern France at around 5:15 am, stated as 0315 GMT, carrying 105 people. He said passengers called rescue services at around 8:00 am when they were about six kilometres off the coast.

Two women in their thirties and the boy, who were believed to be Eritrean, died seemingly in a crush because the dinghy was carrying too many people, Lauch said. He said the boy appeared to have been travelling with his mother and siblings.

The maritime prefecture said all other passengers asked to be rescued and were taken into care. It said the dinghy had not sunk.

Survivors disembarked from a rescue boat at the port of Calais in the mid-morning. An AFP correspondent saw some people on stretchers and in wheelchairs, many wrapped in emergency blankets, with children among them.

Including the latest deaths, at least 22 people have died this year trying to cross the Channel, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources. At least 29 died last year, according to the same tally.

Lauch said autumn days when the weather remains good but the sea is starting to become dangerous are a delicate period for crossings.

France has long been a staging post for asylum seekers without visas hoping to cross by sea to Britain. The route is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and migrants often pay smugglers to board unstable and overcrowded rubber dinghies.