French authorities said on Monday one person could still be missing after six migrants died when their boat sank in the Channel as they tried to cross to England from France.

The six Afghan men died when the migrant boat thought to have been carrying 65 or 66 people sank in the early hours of Saturday.

The identity of the six was still being investigated, the local maritime authorities Premar said.

"Possibly" one person remained unaccounted for, a spokeswoman told AFP.

All passengers were men, most of them from Afghanistan.

The spokeswoman said Premar, expecting a possible surge of Channel crossing attempts, was keeping six patrol boats mobilised in the area.

The French government meanwhile denounced what it said were "criminal traffickers" behind the crossings, and promised to fight their networks.

On Sunday, around 200 people gathered in the port city of Calais to pay tribute to the victims.

They marched behind a large banner listing the names of the 376 migrants that activists say have died attempting the perilous Channel crossing since 1999.

The death toll in the latest tragedy is the highest since November 2021 when 27 migrants lost their lives in the Channel, sparking tension between Britain and France over who needed to do more to prevent such disasters.

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