UK police arrest three after migrant deaths off France

Three men have been arrested in the UK after five migrants, including a child, died this week trying to cross the Channel from France, police said on Wednesday.

The National Crime Agency said two Sudanese nationals aged 19 and 22, and a South Sudan national, also 22, were detained on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl lost their lives in the early hours of Tuesday in the sea near the northern French town of Wimereux.

They had been in a packed boat that set off before dawn but whose engine stopped a few hundred metres from the beach. 

Several people then fell into the water. About 50 people were rescued and brought ashore but emergency services were unable to resuscitate the five.

The tragedy happened just hours after UK lawmakers approved plans to deport undocumented migrants crossing to Rwanda.

The NCA said the three suspects were arrested on suspicion of "facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally".

They were taken to a police station in Kent, southeast England, for questioning, it added.

The NCA, which investigates serious, organised and trans-national crime, said it was supporting a French police investigation.

Fifteen people have died this year trying to cross the busy shipping lane from northern  France to southern England, according to an AFP tally. That is already more than the 12 who died in the whole of last year.

"This tragic incident once again demonstrates the threat to life posed by these crossings and bring into focus why it is so important to target the criminal gangs involved in organising them," said NCA deputy director of investigations Craig Turner. 

"We will do all we can with partners in the UK and France to secure evidence, identify those responsible for this event, and bring them to justice," he added in a statement.