UK police on Friday charged two men who were arrested after five migrants, including a girl, died this week trying to cross the Channel from France.
Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl lost their lives in the early hours of Tuesday in the sea near the northern French town of Wimereux.
They had been in a packed boat that set off before dawn but whose engine stopped a few hundred metres from the beach.
A South Sudanese national, aged 22, has been charged with assisting illegal unlawful immigration, the National Crime Agency said.
Both he and a second man, also 22, from Sudan, were charged with entering the UK illegally.
A third man who was arrested, an 18-year-old from Sudan, had been bailed pending further inquiries, the agency added.
Several people then fell into the water during Tuesday’s tragedy. About 50 people were rescued and brought ashore but emergency services were unable to resuscitate the five.
Fifteen people have died this year trying to cross the busy shipping lane from northern France to southern England, according to an AFP tally.
That is already more than the 12 who died in the whole of last year.
The deaths came just as the UK government’s long-delayed ‘Rwanda Plan’ was finally passed into law. The plan, which will send asylum seekers to the African nation for processing, is designed to deter migrants from attempting to cross the channel.
Critics, however, say it will have little effect and will likely face legal challenges. Migration Watch UK said it may have a “small deterrent” effect, but the government has to “amend or abolish the Human Rights Act” if it is serious about cutting numbers.
