A migrant has died after trying to cross the English Channel in an overloaded boat, a day after another person died attempting the journey.
The French coastguard said the person was in a group of 15 they had picked up from a boat carrying about 80, which left Dunkirk on Wednesday night.
French authorities intervened about 03:00 on Thursday after the vessel ran into trouble near Gravelines where it had picked up more migrants.
Three people were pulled from the water and 12 others on board asked to be evacuated, the coastguard said. One person was unconscious and died despite resuscitation efforts.
The others rescued were taken to the port of Gravelines where they were received treatment by onshore emergency services.
The French coastguard said that after the rescue, they had continued to monitor the boat’s journey towards the UK.
French authorities say numerous departures of migrant boats were reported to its surveillance and rescue centre on Wednesday night.
An investigation has been opened by the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s office.
The latest death comes after another migrant died after being pulled from the water on Wednesday.
A rescue operation was launched following reports a group of people had boarded a dinghy and ran into difficulty in the Equihen-Plage area, northern France, shortly after 09:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Two people were rescued from the water, with one suffering from hypothermia while the other was in cardiac arrest and did not survive.
Home Office data shows that 289 people arrived in the UK in the past seven days, all on Wednesday, in five seperate boat journeys.
Wednesday’s arrivals take the provisional total for the year so far to 4,684 people.
A total of four deaths have been recorded by the French coastguard in its rescue operations in the Channel this year.
