PARIS  -  Several people, including a child, died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Saturday. Attempts to cross the Channel in small, overloaded boats are frequent despite strong currents in what is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

“Smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will step up the fight against these mafias that organise these deadly crossings,” Retailleau said on social media platform X. A total of 14 people were on the boat. One was flown by helicopter to a hospital after a search and rescue operation was conduced Saturday morning, local maritime authorities said. The incident was the latest in a series this year.

including one last month in which 12 migrants died when their boat capsized in the Channel. The Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office confirmed the dead child had been “very young” but did not immediately release other details.

Barbarin said the 14 passengers rescued had disembarked at the town’s commercial port.

Channel crossings to Britain by undocumented asylum seekers have ballooned since 2018 despite repeated warnings about the perilous journey.

The Channel has heavy maritime traffic, icy waters and strong currents.

The French and British governments have sought to stop the flow of undocumented migrants, who may pay smugglers thousands of euros per head for the passage to England from France aboard small boats.

France’s new right-wing prime minister, Michel Barnier, said on Tuesday the country needed a stricter immigration policy.

He vowed to be “ruthless” with people traffickers, who he said “exploit misery and despair” that pushed undocumented asylum seekers to risk trying to cross the Channel and the Mediterranean.

The latest tragedy comes after eight migrants died in mid-September when their overcrowded vessel capsized while trying to cross the Channel.

In early September at least 12 people including six minors, mostly from Eritrea, died off the northern French coast when their loaded boat capsized.

The number of migrants arriving in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats has topped 25,000 since the start of the year.

Stopping the small boat arrivals on England’s southern coast was a key issue in Britain’s general election in July.

British Interior Minister Yvette Cooper has said the government aims over the next six months to achieve the highest rate of deportations of failed asylum seekers in five years.