Disclaimer: This article contains material and reactions that some readers may find upsetting.

This week (Tuesday, 9th September), it was reported that three people, including two children, died in the English Channel.

A local French authority on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted: “A new tragedy occurred last night off the coast of Pas-de-Calais. Three migrants lost their lives, three other people are likely missing."

A 'tragedy' to some, but not to others.

I came across the story on Facebook, in a post that circulated far and wide. It had a picture of people in a small boat, and a caption clearly detailing that two children had died.

As of this morning, the post has around 8,500 reactions. 2,700 of these interactions were of people using the laughing emoji to react. About 30% of people seemingly found this 'tragedy' funny.

God doing our work for us 👍🏻🤣

— damzal (@nickdamzal) September 10, 2025

Other posts on Facebook sharing the news had a similar number of laughing reactions.

Immigration is an incredibly polarising topic in the UK at the moment, but no matter your stance, surely the matter of people dying, especially children, is something we can agree is terrible? Evidently not.

So, I thought I'd ask several of them why they reacted in such a way.

The individuals I contacted originated from all over, the UK, India, Norway, and America.

In total, I reached out to 49 Facebook accounts. Only three responded, under the promise of anonymity.

The first was a woman from the UK. *Margaret.

She said she laughed at the post because: "Immigrants........

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