Four migrants drowned in the Channel yesterday when they were swept away by strong currents. The two men and two women who died were among dozens of migrants whose overloaded boat foundered off the coast of Boulogne early this morning. Thirty-eight people were rescued by the French authorities

Six people have died so far this month in trying to reach England across the world’s busiest shipping lane. A far greater humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the Mediterranean, however, where nearly 1,000 migrants have perished in 2026.

The number may actually be far higher after Cyclone Harry ripped through the southern Mediterranean in January. Bodies are regularly being washed up on the beaches of southern Italy and northern Africa,

So inured have Europeans becomes to the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean that maritime tragedies rarely make the headlines. Earlier this week 80 people were reported missing after their boat capsized en route to Europe from Libya.

In response Amy Pope, the Director General of the UN-affiliated International Organisation for Migration, said that we ‘need stronger, unified efforts to stop traffickers and smugglers from exploiting vulnerable........

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