Recent data reveals that a significant number of individuals, including an eight-year-old child, tragically lost their lives while attempting the perilous Channel crossing in 2025.
Various charities estimate that a minimum of 36 individuals perished in their quest to reach the UK, although some sources suggest the actual toll may be higher. Among the deceased were a mother and daughter identified as Kazaq Ezra, aged 40, and Agdad Hilmi, aged eight, who met a fatal end on a small vessel in May.
Collaborating with multiple agencies in the UK and France, the Mirror has been striving to ascertain the identities of the deceased. Unfortunately, neither country maintains a comprehensive registry of these fatalities, leaving many unnamed and unaccounted for.
The act of publicly disclosing the names of those who perished has been described as a fundamental gesture in acknowledging their humanity. Asylum Matters’ Director, Louise Calvey, emphasized the significance of recognizing these tragedies, criticizing governmental negligence in documenting such incidents.
Among the individuals identified were Natnael Tesfalem, 31, from Eritrea, who drowned in May, and Awet Hagos Haile, a woman believed to be around 30 from the same region, who passed away in March. Additionally, Bilal Yildirim from Turkey, whose body was recovered over 50 days after going missing, was noted by a friend on a GoFundMe page as having embarked on an unsafe vessel.
In separate incidents, a Somali woman, potentially named Ayesha, lost her life while boarding a boat in Dunkirk in August. Tragically, her death was followed by the demise of two more Somali women under similar circumstances the subsequent month.
Jabr Al Ftah from Kuwait, aged 64, succumbed to a heart attack aboard a small vessel heading to the UK in March. Other casualties included Abdul Raheem Qasem, 24, from Yemen, found deceased on a beach in Sangatte, and Suleiman Alhussein Abu Aeday, a Syrian in his early twenties, who was the first reported fatality of the year.
In April, an unidentified Eritrean woman, believed to be in her 30s, was laid to rest in a Calais cemetery before her family could be located after her fatal attempt to reach the UK via a small boat, according to Calais Migrant Solidarity.
The Missing Migrants Project reported a total of 36 fatalities in 2025 during attempts to reach the UK, comprising 20 men, six women, and one child, with the demographics of the others unknown.
While drowning was cited as the cause of death in nine cases, the circumstances surrounding many other fatalities remain ambiguous.</p