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At least five people died in icy waters off a beach in northern France early Sunday as they tried to traverse the English Channel to Britain, the latest in a string of tragedies in recent years that have underlined the inability of governments on both sides of the waterway to deter attempts of the perilous crossing<\/a>.<\/p>\n The people were found dead near a beach in the town of Wimereux after their boat was \u201creported in difficulty nearby\u201d around 1:45 a.m. and several passengers tried to reach the shore, French maritime authorities said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than 30 people were rescued, two of them in serious condition, the statement said. One person was found unconscious and was hospitalized, and another had \u201csevere hypothermia,\u201d the statement said. It added that the French coast guard had deployed several ships in the area \u201cto continue investigations at sea and search for any people who are still adrift.\u201d<\/p>\n French authorities did not identify the people who died or say where they were from, and they did not specify the causes of death. It was not immediately clear what kind of difficulty the boat was facing. Local prosecutors have opened an investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The French maritime authorities said that crossing conditions had improved after several days of bad weather, but that the water temperature in the English Channel was about 9 degrees Celsius, or about 48 degrees Fahrenheit. They also noted that the Channel is one of the world\u2019s busiest maritime routes, with over 400 commercial ships per day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a particularly dangerous sector, especially in the middle of winter, for precarious, overloaded boats,\u201d the maritime authorities said.<\/p>\n A tugboat chartered by the French Navy was unable to get very close to the migrant vessel on Sunday because the waters were too shallow, but it deployed a rigid-inflatable boat that picked up several people at sea and dropped them off on the beach, the maritime authorities said. Other migrants were rescued directly by French security forces on land or were winched up by a Navy helicopter, they added.<\/p>\n A dozen people died last year trying to cross the waterway, according to French maritime authorities. One of the highest death tolls in recent years came in 2021, when 27 people died after their boat capsized<\/a> during a single crossing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many people trying to reach Britain across the waterway have fled their home countries in the Middle East or Africa, clustering in small makeshift camps on the coast of northern France before trying to cross in small dinghies or by hiding on trucks taking the Channel Tunnel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Crossings were down by 36 percent last year, according to the British Home Office<\/a>, with more than 26,000 attempts prevented.<\/p>\n While the incident on Sunday occurred on the French side of the waterway, and the British Coast Guard had no involvement, the tragedy comes at a time when political messaging about the arrival of asylum seekers traveling by boat to Britain has ratcheted up in the country.<\/p>\n This week, British lawmakers are set to debate contentious legislation that will try to revive a government plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which the Supreme Court in Britain deemed illegal last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s Conservative government has pledged to stop the small-boat arrivals, which make up only a fraction of asylum seeker arrivals into the country \u2014 and an even smaller number of overall migration in Britain<\/a> \u2014 but have become a potent symbol. Conservatives have made deterrence one of their flagship issues ahead of an election planned for this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt breaks my heart to hear about it, but it just shows we\u2019ve got to stop the boats, we\u2019ve got to stop this illegal trade in human beings,\u201d David Cameron, Britain\u2019s foreign secretary, told the BBC<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n