6 dead after migrant boat sinks in English Channel

PARIS - Six migrants died after their boat sank Friday overnight in the English Channel off the French department of Pas-de-Calais, French maritime officials said Saturday.

More than 50 passengers from the boat were rescued under the joint efforts of the French and British coast authorities, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said in a press release.

According to the prefecture, a commercial ship informed early Saturday morning the regional operational center for surveillance and rescue (CROSS) of a boat carrying migrants being at a stop. The public service patrol boat then spotted it sinking.

Various French and British means, including ships and helicopters, were deployed to save the migrants in trouble, the prefecture added.

Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East have been camped on the French port city of Calais, trying to cross into Britain on small vessels, or to board vehicles heading for Britain via the tunnel or on ferries.