Body of Iraqi man who ‘tried to swim to UK’ wearing makeshift life vest of plastic bottles found off Belgian coast

Campaigners describe death as ‘desperately sad – and preventable’

Body was discovered at an offshore windfarm near Zeebrugge (AFP/Getty)

An Iraqi man has died while trying to swim across the Channel to the UK, according to Belgian authorities.

The man, believed to be in his forties, was found dead at a windfarm off the coast of Belgium near Zeebrugge, in what is said to be the first discovery of a dead migrant in Belgian waters.

West Flanders’ governor Carl Decaluwe said the man was found wearing an improvised buoyancy aid made of plastic water bottles and wearing one flipper, according to the BBC.

The man, who police identified using fingerprints, is believed to have been refused asylum in Germany and thought to have been trying to swim to the UK from France.

“It makes me very sad. If you see in the 21st century that people try to swim from France to the UK, that’s crazy,” Mr Decaluwe is reported to have said.

The UK’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott tweeted the news was “tragic”, adding: “These are incredibly desperate people.”

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty UK’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, said: “A man has drowned, two weeks after a woman went missing presumed drowned. These awful tragedies are avoidable.

“But while governments continue to shirk rather than share responsibility, the risk more people will die remains high.”

Campaign group Migrant echoed his remarks, saying the incident was “desperately sad – and preventable” and that migrants needed “safe, legal routes”.

Marta Welander, executive director of Refugee Rights Europe, said an increasingly “hostile climate” for displaced people in northern France appeared to deter prospective asylum seekers from wanting to stay in France, with “precarious conditions acting as a strong impetus for people to try and get to the UK at any cost – and by any means possible”.

She added: “Unless structural reform occurs, where legal pathways are opened up to allow individuals to access the UK asylum system, individuals will continue to take life-threatening risks in order to cross the Channel.”

The death comes as UK border guards were seen intercepting three dinghies containing migrants heading across the English Channel towards Dover on Monday morning.

Around 20 people were seen being taken to a quayside Home Office facility in Dover after the boats were towed towards land by a Border Force cutter.

More than 970 people, including at least 80 children, have crossed the Channel in small boats this year, with more than 200 in August – making it the highest number of any month since the home secretary declared a “major incident” in December.

An Iranian woman is missing feared dead after a boat carrying her and 19 others, including several children, got into difficulties in worsening winds and rain off Kent on 9 August.

In response to the increase in crossings, ministers were last week urged to roll back “brutal” border policies at Calais that campaigners said were forcing migrants to attempt increasingly dangerous crossings to Britain.

Boris Johnson responded with a stark warning to asylum seekers that he would send anyone who successfully crossed the Channel back to France – comments that lawyers and charities branded “inflammatory” and “misleading”.

A Home Office spokesperson said in response to the death of the Iraqi man: “This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the individual involved and their family and friends.

“Anyone seeking to swim across the Channel or to cross this dangerous stretch of water in a small boat is taking a huge risk.”