More Illegal Immigrants Cross English Channel Following Fatal Incident

More Illegal Immigrants Cross English Channel Following Fatal Incident
A group of people thought to be illegal immigrants onboard the Dover lifeboat are brought in to Dover, Kent, on Jan. 15, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA)
1/15/2022
Updated:
1/15/2022

Dozens of people, believed to be illegal immigrants, have been brought ashore to the English county of Kent on Saturday, a day after a man died while trying to cross the English Channel.

Photos show two boats arriving, each carrying around 30 people including children, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

One of the craft was brought in to Dover while the second group was brought ashore at Dungeness.

The images showed some receiving medical treatment after being brought back onto land.

The groups were rescued in pitch-black conditions by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution following two small boat incidents in the Channel.

On Friday, a Sudanese man in his 20s was found unconscious and pulled from the water after going overboard as he and others attempted to reach the UK, according to French authorities.

The man was taken back to shore but declared dead.

A manslaughter investigation has been opened, the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor said.

In that incident, a total of 32 people were rescued off Berck, near Calais, in a state of hypothermia, authorities said.

The death came less than two months after at least 27 people died when their boat sank off the coast of France in November.

More than 450 people have made the perilous trip across the Channel in small boats in 2022, following a record-breaking year in 2021.

On Thursday, at least 271 people aboard 10 small boats reached the UK despite the near-freezing temperatures in the English Channel, more than the entire total for January last year.

PA contributed to this report.