A REFUGEE has died while attempting to cross the Channel, just eight days after another man was feared to have drowned off the Essex coast. 

French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation after a small boat capsized off the coast of Dunkirk on Wednesday. 

Dunkirk prosecutor Sebastien Pive said today that an adult in his thirties was pulled out of the water unconscious by rescuers, who brought him back to France. 

“The rescuers did their best, but he was declared dead when the rescue boat arrived back at the dock,” he said. 

Announcing the investigation, Mr Pive added that officials would search for those responsible for organising the crossing. 

The man’s death is the second in just over a week after at least three people fell overboard off a small boat near Harwich, Essex.

A rescue operation by Border Force and HM Coastguard was called off last Tuesday after two men from Somalia were rescued, but the third person was not found. 

The tragic deaths have prompted fresh calls for safe routes for asylum-seekers to reach Britain’s shores. 

Bridget Chapman of the Kent Refugee Action Network warned that little had been achieved by the government’s approach to small boat crossings “apart from making this journey even more difficult and dangerous.”

She said: “The government has announced one draconian sounding proposal after another; from floating walls to the pushbacks of dinghies — they have all been frantic and pointless sabre-rattling in place of a proper grown-up approach to taking on our fair share of responsibility for those seeking asylum in Europe.”

Ms Chapman added that the government should instead introduce humanitarian visas allowing the holder safe and legal travel, which she said would “completely destroy the market for people-smuggling gangs overnight.”