French maritime authorities say an immigrant is trying to cross a small boat from northern France to England across the passage.
Pas-de-Calais County said in a statement that the Kuvati immigrant suffered cardiac arrest on a ship in the 1960s and carried him and other immigrants on Saturday.
It added that the ship returned to the beach and the man, but despite efforts from police and medical staff, it was pronounced dead at the scene.
He is the sixth man to die this year when he tried to cross the channel.
The ship set off from Calais in northern France on Saturday morning, “soon a man arrested the ship allegedly suspected of heart respirators,” the Strait and the French Maritime County of the North Sea told AFP.
It added: “Once the ship got off, that ship fell down, those who wanted to get off the boat on the beach.”
Authorities said the ship was “largely full”, but did not say how many people were on board.
More than 1,600 immigrants crossed the boats over the channel in the past week, and 51 arrived on Friday alone, according to the Home Office data.
The crossings of 3,720 people have increased so far, up 11% in the same period last year.
Record-breaking immigration numbers die in 2024 when they try to make dangerous crossings.
According to the Office of the Fight Against Illegal Trafficking of Migrants (OLTIM), 78 people died last year while trying to reach England, the highest number since the first transit in 2018.
Britain and France have stepped up efforts to stop channels from crossing, including strengthening patrols on French beaches, intercepting boats and arresting smugglers who organize intersections.
“We all want to end the dangerous small ship, which threatens lives and undermines our border security,” the Home Office said in a statement Friday.
“As long as they pay, the gang they will smuggle doesn't care whether they exploit the vulnerable people who live or die. We will remove their business model with nothing and bring them to justice.”
On February 27, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper met with her French counterpart, Home Minister Bruno Retailleau, to agree to a series of measures aimed at resolving people's smuggling gangs.
These include Dunkirk’s new professional intelligence and judicial police department to speed up arrests and prosecutions of people and train drone pilots to help intercept ships before they are at sea.
French authorities will prevent immigrants from land, but will not once land on the sea.
