People gathered in Calais, France, on Wednesday to pay their respects to migrants who drowned when their small rubber dinghy was torn to pieces in the English Channel on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga) Nicolas Garriga/Associated Press

WIMEREUX, France — A day after 12 migrants died when their small dinghy broke apart during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel, dozens more made another attempt Wednesday on the crowded vessel from northern France, as French patrol boats watched it trudge across the sea.

That the migrants were prepared to risk their lives so soon after dozens lost theirs trying to cross the busy waterway from France to Britain underlined the scale of the problem for the French and British governments. It was the deadliest migrant boat accident in the English Channel this year.

The mayor of Wimereux, the French seaside town where Associated Press journalists filmed a crowded dinghy on Wednesday, appealed to French and British authorities to do more to limit the number of migrants making the often dangerous journey.

“Unfortunately, for us, every day is like this. The smugglers — the criminal network — continue to stubbornly send people to their deaths through the canal. It’s really unacceptable, it’s outrageous. And it’s high time we found a lasting solution with the UK,” Mayor Jean-Luc Dubaële said by phone.

“Let’s ask ourselves: Why do they want to go to the UK? Because they are drawn there,” he said. “They can ask for asylum in France. (But) nobody asks for the right to asylum in France. Everybody wants to go to the UK. So it’s high time we sit down at the table with the new British government.”

Migration across the Channel was one of the main issues in the July UK general election, in which the Labour Party won a landslide victory and its leader, Keir Starmer, became the new prime minister.

The French prosecutor investigating Tuesday’s sinking, Guirec Le Bras, said 10 of the 12 dead were women and six of the victims were minors. Many appeared to be Eritrean, he said. The dinghy sank about 3 miles off the French coast, he said. Maritime authorities said many of those on board were not wearing life jackets.

Fishermen who recovered some of the victims’ bodies said they were moved to tears.

“The bodies of the two women were very young. It hurt me. I cried all day. I couldn’t stop,” said Samba Sy Ndiaye, 53, who works aboard the Murex, one of two fishing boats that helped rescue the French.

Another crew member, Axel Baheu, said the body of a young woman he believed to be between 15 and 20 years old had a phone in a waterproof case around her neck. The phone started ringing as he was pulling her out of the water and checking her pulse, he said.

“It was difficult because you knew perfectly well that no one would ever answer,” Baheu said.

His father, Jean Marie Baheu, said he saw another heavily loaded boat of migrants leave in front of his house on Wednesday.

“When the weather is good and there is no wind, departures take place every day,” he said. “At first, there were 20, 30 people. Now there are at least 70, 80.”

The dinghy seen and filmed by the AP on Wednesday was carrying migrants, French maritime authorities confirmed. AP journalists estimated there were between 40 and 50 people on board.

Many were wearing life jackets. At one point, a French-flagged patrol boat approached the pontoon and the crew threw more life jackets to the migrants—about half a dozen.

The grey waters of the English Channel were relatively calm, with small waves lapping the beach as people walked their dogs on the sand.

Still, the dinghy seemed to be making slow progress. Even as journalists filmed it for more than two hours, it remained clearly visible from shore, with a patrol boat circling it and a larger one following it from a distance.

The French maritime agency overseeing that stretch of sea said boats were monitoring the pontoon in case there were any problems or if those on board asked for help.

The agency said in a statement to the AP that while maritime law prohibits the use of makeshift pontoons at sea, it is too dangerous to pull them back to shore when the boats are heavily loaded.

“This is difficult to achieve when there are more than 50 people on board who are steadfastly refusing rescue. The main risk is panic on board and subsequent capsizing, as these boats are neither stable nor reliable. The risk of loss of human life is too high for forced intervention, so the decision was made to prioritize the protection of those on board and simply monitor the navigation capabilities of these boats from a distance,” the statement reads.

“It is therefore a question of ethics rather than blind application of the law,” it added.

At least 21,720 migrants have managed to cross the Channel this year, the UK government estimates, up 3% on the same stage last year but 19% fewer than the same period in 2022.

The boat that burst open Tuesday, throwing 65 people into the sea, was one of several attempts to cross the river that day. British authorities said at least 317 migrants had succeeded, arriving aboard five boats.

One of the first measures the new UK government immediately passed was to scrap the previous Conservative government’s plan to send some migrants arriving by small boat to Rwanda rather than allow them to seek asylum in the UK. Human rights groups criticised the plan.

Starmer has called the plan a “gimmick” and that it would not act as a deterrent. Instead, his government has decided to spend some of the money saved by scrapping the scheme on creating a reinforced border force to “smash” the criminal gangs behind the arrival of small boats.

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