THE government faced fresh calls to take real responsibility for those seeking safety after another person died crossing the Channel today.

It comes just a day after another person tragically lost their lives making the same journey.

A boat initially set off without 40 people on board, but then came back to shore three hours later and picked up more people from the coast of Gravelines, in northern France.

One person was unconscious and was declared dead after attempts to resuscitate them, the French coastguard said.

It reported that three people were pulled from the water, while another 12 people requested to be evacuated.

It let the boat continue on to Britain, carrying about 80 people, and said that it would “monitor” the vessel. 

The International Organisation for Migration recorded eight people dead or missing in the Channel so far this year. The latest fatalities have raised the total to at least 10.

Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds described the deaths as “deeply shocking.”

“The government must finally confront the fact that years of simply trying to ‘smash gangs’ and ‘stop boats’ without taking some real share of responsibility for people who currently have no safer options is doing no good whatsoever,” he said.

“Failing or refusing to co-operate on sharing asylum duties is simply leaving criminal gangs to control and exploit the miserable, sometimes deadly, circumstances that refugees are being left to endure.”

A Home Office spokesperson said the government will “stop at nothing” to dismantle the business models of people-smuggling gangs.

“We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security,” they said.