Person dies with 72 rescued from small boat trying to reach UK

Person dies with 72 rescued from small boat trying to reach UK One person has died after the French coastguard picked up 72 people requesting assistance from a vessel carrying more than 110 passengers who were trying to reach the UK A person has died and 72 were rescued from a boat carrying more than 110 people which was trying to reach the UK. The French coastguard said a rescue vessel was monitoring a boat in the Gravelines area overnight from Thursday to Friday, and it picked up 72 migrants who were requesting assistance. The crew found one person on the boat who needed CPR and a rescue helicopter was dispatched, but the migrant was pronounced dead. Three other people were found injured, including one who required urgent medical care, according to a translation of a statement from the Prefecture maritime de la Manche et de la mer du Nord. It came after 494 migrants arrived in the UK on Thursday, the first to successfully cross the Channel in 10 days. The seven boats that made the crossing were the first since August 17 when 250 people arrived. The total number is down overall this year, according to Press Association analysis of Government data. Some 16,391 migrants have crossed the Channel so far, down 43% on the same time last year and a 17% drop from the same point in 2024. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will not be “complacent” about the falling numbers, and that there is “more we must do”. She added: “That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes.”