The disaster is the deadliest loss of life in the Channel this year. The mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frédéric Cuvillier, told the BBC that a pregnant woman had died. One source said a Syrian smuggler may have been involved.
The city’s prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, said that those killed were “primarily of Eritrean origin,” but that officials “do not have consolidated details that would allow us to specify the exact nationalities”.
Before Tuesday’s incident, 30 people had already died crossing the Channel in 2024 – the highest figure for any year since 2021, when 45 deaths were recorded, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration.