Two migrants have died, one is missing and hundreds more have been rescued on France’s northern coast in recent days, as growing numbers seek to reach Britain in relatively stable weather, French authorities said Thursday. The corpse of one migrant was found on Thursday morning in a small boat filled with water which washed up on the beach in Wissant outside the northern city of Calais, a source close to the investigation told AFP. Two other people from the same boat were taken to hospital suffering extreme hypothermia. In separate incidents the day before, one migrant died and one went missing, while more than 400 were rescued after several vessels sank in the Channel en route to Britain, French authorities said. “More than 400 people were saved. Unfortunately, despite efforts, one is missing and another one was declared dead” on Wednesday, the French maritime prefecture said in a statement. Earlier, Dunkirk prosecutor SebastienPieve told AFP that the person who drowned was an adult man who was aboard an overcrowded boat that sank. Attempted crossings between France and Britain have increased this week, likely because favourable weather and excellent visibility prompted people to take their chances before winter sets in. The past three years have seen a significant rise in attempted Channel crossings by migrants, despite warnings of the dangers in the busy shipping lane between northern France and southern England, which is subject to strong currents and low temperatures. In 2020, around 9,500 people made or attempted crossings, compared with 2,300 in 2019 and 600 in 2018. But this year alone 24,655 people have crossed or attempted to make the crossing, with 5,713 of them rescued according to the French authorities. According to a count by Britain’s domestic news agency PA, more than 17,000 migrants have made the crossing to Britain in small boats since the beginning of the year, more than double the figure for the whole of 2020. Deaths have been relatively rare on the route but these are not the first fatalities.