Portugal Colonial - Three migrants dead, three missing in Channel crossing attempts

The latest fatalities, which took place in northern France overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, bring the number of deaths this year linked to crossings in overcrowded dinghies to at least 23, according to an AFP tally based on official French data.

Early on Wednesday morning, a French tugboat rescued a group of 44 migrants, bringing them to the northern port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Three unconscious people had been found with the rescued migrants, Laurent Touvet, the top state official for the northern region of Pas-de-Calais, told reporters.

Presumably crushed to death "at the bottom of the boat", they were pronounced dead shortly afterwards, Touvet said.

The three victims were a female and two males.

"They are young people," Touvet told reporters, adding there might have been two minors among the victims.

The tragedy occurred off the coast of Sangatte, he said.

Three other people were hospitalised.

Despite the deaths the boat continued on its way later, with 28 people "refusing assistance" by French authorities, according to a statement by the Maritime Prefecture for the English Channel and the North Sea.

In a separate incident Tuesday night, three migrants are believed to be missing during an attempt to cross the Channel near the town of Neufchatel-Hardelot, south of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

"One person was resuscitated by the police while drowning," the prefect said.

"A little later we heard cries from people further out at sea, so there are likely to be three missing persons," he said.

But searches did not lead to any discoveries so far, officials said.

Two separate probes have been opened, Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Cecile Gressier told AFP.

"All the staff involved experienced a night unlike any they had seen in several months," Touvet said, adding that "The toll could have been much, much higher."

In a third incident, authorities rescued a boat in distress with 115 people on board, Touvet said.

The issue of cross-Channel migration has become a major source of tension between France and Britain.

More than 30,000 migrants have made the dangerous journey so far this year across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

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L.Henrique--PC