Three migrants die after boat sinks off coast of Calais

Three migrants died on Wednesday after a boat carrying a large group capsized off the coast of Calais, a local French authority said, highlighting the challenges for the British and French governments as they aim to tackle illegal immigration.

The local prefect added that 45 people who had been on the same boat were rescued and brought to safety.

More than 50 people have died so far this year while trying to cross the English Channel in hazardous conditions, often on makeshift rafts or dinghies.

The Channel is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, which makes such crossings dangerous.

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Last week, European Union leaders agreed to toughen their immigration policies, including by using all their leverage including trade and visa policy, to speed up returns of migrants illegally entering the bloc.

Immigration is a highly sensitive topic in most of the bloc's 27 member states, even though irregular migrants arriving in Europe last year were a third of the 1 million seen during the crisis in 2015, and numbers have fallen further this year.