Responding to reports that a 16-year-old Sudanese boy has drowned in the English Channel while trying to reach the UK, Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said:

“We are deeply saddened at the news that a young man has been found dead after it would seem drowning in an attempt to cross the Channel.

“We know he is not the first person to have lost his life attempting to reach safety in the UK from France and can only hope that such tragedies do not continue.

“We continue, therefore, to demand that the Governments on both sides of these waters share their asylum responsibilities and implore them in doing so to focus on relieving the desperate plight of people in need of support, safety and, in many cases, reunion with their family.”