Four migrants die crossing English Channel

French authorities said that at least four people, two men and two women, died on Thursday as they were trying to get on board an inflatable boat to attempt the perilous sea crossing from northern France to the UK.

The prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, Francois-Xavier Lauch, said 38 others were rescued, including one whose condition involved a medical emergency. He spoke while rescue operations were still ongoing on Equihen Beach on Thursday morning. Lauch said migrants were carried away by dangerous currents as they were trying to embark on a “taxi-boat,” the name authorities use for small motorised boats, usually inflatable, used by traffickers to pick up people along large stretches of the northern French coast.

Thursday’s incident happened along a broad expanse of sand, backed by dunes and a forest where people attempting the perilous crossing hide out, sometimes for days at a time, as they wait for boats and suitable weather and sea conditions. Police patrol on buggies and keep watch from the remains of World War II-era bunkers but cannot prevent all departures on a beach so long. Attempted crossings and deaths have surged in recent days.