At dawn, the sea gave up its dead. Four migrants, swept under in the cold Channel, as politicians argued over paperwork and patrol zones. A “taxiboat” packed with desperate people, French police standing by on beaches, London’s offer to turn boats back rejected in Paris. As summer nears, smugglers prepare, governments wr…

In the grey light off Equihen-Plage, rescuers pulled shivering survivors from the water and zipped others into body bags. Two men and two women will never know if they were minutes away from rescue or from another country’s shore. Officials talk of currents, hypothermia and “taxiboats,” but the language of this crisis is measured in lives, not technical terms.

Behind the scenes, Britain and France haggle over millions for patrols and the legal right to intercept boats in foreign waters. While Emmanuel Macron’s government refuses UK cutters the power to turn migrants back to French ports, smugglers exploit every gap, launching flimsy dinghies as soon as the weather calms. With more than 5,000 crossings already this year and summer approaching, today’s four deaths feel less like an accident and more like a warning no one in power can claim not to have seen coming.