A four-month-old baby died when an overloaded migrant boat headed for Britain sank in the English Channel off the coast of France in the latest tragedy involving asylum seekers, French authorities said on Friday.
Sixty-eight people were rescued when the accident occurred off the French town of Wissant on Thursday night, prosecutors and the maritime authority in charge of French waters in the Channel and the North Sea said.
The infant, aged four months and possibly from Iraqi Kurdistan, was on board with his parents and two other children, prosecutors said.
Rescuers recovered 52 men, 12 women and four children, according to prosecutors.
The passengers onboard 鈥榳ere mainly of Iranian, Iraqi, Albanian and Eritrean nationality,鈥� Guirec Le Bras, the public prosecutor in Boulogne-sur-Mer, told AFP.
The latest sinking comes as an anti-immigration mood dominates political debate in Europe.
The tragedy brings the number of people who have died attempting to reach England from France so far this year to at least 52 -- a record since 2018.
During a rescue operation on Thursday evening several vessels and a Belgian helicopter spotted an overcrowded boat, with some of its passengers in the water.
The boat 鈥榳as tearing at the centre, with some passengers falling into the water, while others were holding on to the inflatable elements鈥�, the prosecutor said.
鈥楢fter a search, an infant was found unconscious in the water and unfortunately declared dead,鈥� the maritime prefecture said.
Authorities launched a manslaughter investigation and were interviewing the survivors as part of the probe.
Channel crossings to Britain by undocumented asylum seekers have surged since 2018 despite repeated warnings about the perilous journey. The English Channel has heavy maritime traffic, icy waters and strong currents.