Lessen appeal of UK, says French minister after latest Channel deaths

BRITAIN’S thriving black economy and lack of checks will continue to be a magnet for illegal immigrants, the Government was warned today after 12 people including a pregnant woman drowned in the latest Channel tragedy.

- Jitendra Joshi and Peter Allen

Migrants will cross for as long as they know they can disappear into the UK system, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said, as TV footage showed another boat with dozens of people making the crossing this morning.

A dinghy crammed with dozens of Eritreans ripped in two during a crossing yesterday. Ten of the fatalities were female and two were male, including six children, while another 65 people were rescued by the French coastguard off the town of Wimereux.

French prosecutors opened a manslaughter investigation as it emerged that the 65 had continued their crossing, despite 15 others on the doomed boat phoning through a mayday appeal and getting taken off by a Normandy-based rescue vessel.