Channel deaths: Two charged with immigration offences

THE police have charged two men with immigration offences after five migrants, including a child, died when a small boat crossed the English Channel from France earlier this week.

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.

Both men have been remanded in custody and are expected to appear in a court in Kent on Friday.

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.

About 6,500 people have arrived in England on small boats from France so far this year.

Tuesday's deadly crossing took place just hours after the British parliament passed a bill paving the way for asylum seekers who arrive in Britain without permission to be deported to Rwanda.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims this will deter people from making the journey. (Agencies)