Authorities have arrested six people after the bodies of two migrants were found on a northern France beach following a failed bid to cross the Channel and reach Britain, French prosecutors said Monday.
After a record year for deaths in the Channel, crossing attempts have continued in the middle of winter, despite sometimes freezing temperatures.
The six people arrested are aged 19 to 50 and of Afghan, Sudanese and Iranian nationality, the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office said.
The first body, a man in his 30s of Afghan origin, was found on the sandy beach in Berck in the the Pas-de-Calais region, with a second spotted less than two hours later just 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) away, authorities said.
The men were migrants attempting to swim to a small boat already in the water that would take them across the Channel.
“Around 60 migrants were waiting in the water to board,” …