The body of an Iraqi refugee who tried to swim across the Channel from France to Britain has been found off Belgium’s coast, authorities said on Monday.
The 48-year-old’s body was discovered on Friday near the seaside resort of Zeebrugge, wearing a makeshift life jacket made of empty plastic bottles and carrying a small bag with his identity papers, the prosecutor’s office in Bruges said.
“It’s the first time we’ve found the body of a migrant,” Flanders Province Governor Carl Decaluwe said on Monday.
Officials believe the man drowned while trying to swim from a beach in northern France to Britain. Currents are thought to have transported his body to Belgian waters.
He was found drifting near a wind farm about 30km off Zeebrugge, the Belgian news agency Belga reported.
He had attempted the swim after failing to obtain asylum in Germany, the agency said.
Eight days before the Iraqi’s body was found, a Belgian sailor had spotted a man wearing a belt made of empty plastic bottles crying for help in waters off the French coast of Dunkirk.
The sailor had informed French maritime authorities of the Aug. 18 incident, saying he had tried to save the man, but the man was swept away by a current.
Refugees and migrants are taking ever greater risks to reach Britain from France. Since January, about 1,450 migrants have been rescued either by British or French coastguards, more than double the number who attempted to cross the busy shipping channel in the whole of last year, according to official French figures released on Monday.
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