A record number of 853 migrants crossed the Channel on Wednesday, Home Office figures have revealed.
It is the highest number of crossings in a single day, topping the previous high of 828 migrants on August 21. The migrants were in 25 separate boats and picked up in UK waters by Border Force and RNLI rescue crews.
In just two days this week, 1,309 crossed the Channel, while a further 975 attempts made by migrants in 19 boats were thwarted by the French authorities this week.
It meant there has been a total of 2,284 attempted crossings this week despite the cold November weather.
The fresh surge has taken the number to have made the journey this year to 21,050, nearly three times the 8,420 recorded last year, which was then an annual record.
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A Home Office source said: “The French have got to take this much more seriously.”
The figures were revealed as a third migrant died in the space of two days after attempting to cross in a small boat.
French emergency services discovered three people on the beach at Wissant, northern France, after finding a boat filled with water.
One person was confirmed dead while the other two migrants, who were suffering hypothermia, were taken to hospital in Calais.
Rescue teams were also told two more people remained at sea. They were found later in the day on the beach.
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The French Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said: “On the morning of November 4, 2021, three castaways were found on the beach of Wissant after the discovery of a boat filled with water.
“One of them is unfortunately found dead. The other two castaways are in a state of hypothermia. They are taken care of by the emergency services and transported to the Calais hospital centre.
“At the same time and in the same sector, the emergency services were informed of two castaways at sea. They were found later in the day on the beach.”
The French authorities also reported an Eritrean was killed and three other migrants injured yesterday when a train hit a group walking along the tracks near Calais.
It comes after an unconscious man aged in his 30s was pronounced dead and another was missing and presumed dead while crossing on Wednesday.
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After the latest fatality, UK government sources accused the French of neglecting their duty to protect lives. One said: “This is all totally preventable. If this was happening off our coast then we’d have mobilised every part of government and the state to try and stop people dying. It is in their power to stop this.”
This week’s three fatalities come after three others are believed to have drowned last week when their boat drifted off course in the Channel.
UK rescue teams eventually picked up a small dinghy about 35 miles off the coast of Harwich in Essex, rescuing two Somali migrants. Three others who had boarded the boat in Calais were reported to have fallen overboard but Border Force and the RNLI called off their search after a 27-hour operation.
A seventh death was reported in August after a 27-year-old Eritrean man drowned in August after a migrant boat sank off the coast of northern France.
Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, said tragic deaths could be prevented with help from France. “Month after month lives are being lost in the English Channel,” she said. “This is not just tragic, it is wholly avoidable if the French stepped up to the plate and stopped boats leaving in the first place.
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“Traffickers will continue to ply their disgusting trade while they are able to do so. It is the responsibility of all civilised countries to put a stop to it.”
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, which supports migrants, said: “These tragic deaths are truly shocking and should make the government urgently rethink its approach. The sad reality is that unless this government fundamentally changes its approach by committing to an ambitious expansion of safe routes for those in need of protection, the lives of ordinary men, women and children will be at risk of being lost in this way.
“Every day, people are forced to flee their home through no fault of their own and we must do more to make the journey safer. This government’s cruel and ineffective plans of seeking to punish or push away those who try and find safety in our country must end immediately.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “These deaths in the Channel are devastating and our thoughts are with the victims’ family and friends at this time. It is another reminder of the extreme dangers of crossing the Channel in small boats and how vital it is that the French do everything possible to stop people leaving French beaches in the first place.
“We welcome France’s commitment to work with us to prevent 100 per cent of crossings but as today’s tragic events shows, it is vital they go further and faster to achieve this.
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“We are fixing the broken asylum system to deter people from making this deadly and unnecessary journey.”
