The French Government has lowered the death toll to 27 for the sinking of a boat of migrants crossing the English Channel bound for the United Kingdom, according to the latest count.

In the late afternoon, both French President Emmanuel Macron and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin They had pointed out that 31 people had died and that two others had been rescued alive.

Among those killed off the coast of Calais are five women and a girl. In addition, two people have been rescued and transferred to the Calais Hospital with hypothermia. Furthermore, four suspected traffickers have been arrested.

Subsequently, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has spoken with the French president, Emmanuel Macron -according to a statement from Downing Street-, with whom it has agreed the “urgency of increase joint efforts to prevent these deadly steps and to do everything possible for stop the gangs responsible to risk people’s lives. “

Before that telephone meeting, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has asked his European counterparts for an immediate reinforcement of the Frontex agency’s means at the external borders of the European Union and for an “emergency meeting” of the ministers in charge of this migration challenge.

“France will not let La Mancha become a cemetery. Trafficking networks endanger lives and challenge who we are. We owe it to the victims, to the orphans, to the families. We owe it to ourselves,” he said in a statement.

Macron has urged to accelerate the dismantling of these “criminal networks” together with Great Britain, Belgium, Holland and Germany: “If we do not expand our efforts from today, there will be other tragedies,” he added.

The president has indicated in his statement that since the beginning of the year, thanks to the mobilization of 600 policemen and gendarmes, 44 networks have been dismantled and 1,552 people involved in this trafficking have been arrested.

Despite the deployment of security, they have since been registered 47,000 attempts to reach the UK. The forces of order have rescued 7,800 migrants in that time, Macron added in that statement, where he stressed that Europe “is in mourning” for what happened today.

Boris Johnson says France can do more

For his part, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has urged France to take greater measures to prevent the crossing of migrants to the United Kingdom through the English Channel.

Today’s “disaster,” he told the media at his official Downing Street residence, “shows how vital it is to step up efforts to crack down on the business model of gangsters who are sending people away in this way. across the sea “.

Furthermore, the British Prime Minister has suggested that the Gallic Government has not taken all the steps which he considers necessary to avoid the departure of small boats from the French shores.

“We have had difficulty persuading some of our partners, particularly the French, to do things the way we think this situation requires,” he said.

The reproaches between the respective authorities are mutual, since the French denounce that the labor market in the United Kingdom has a disturbing effect called because there people without papers can work easily.