Six dead and dozens rescued after migrant boat capsizes in Channel as search continues

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At least six people have died with others still missing after a migrant boat capsized in the English Channel.

Dozens of people were rescued in an operation involving French and British authorities after a boat struggled in the water on Saturday morning.

Accounts from survivors of the shipwreck say at least 65 people took to the sea in the boat that sank, French authorities said in a statement this afternoon.

The search is still underway, with two migrants still believed to be missing.

Around 50 people were rescued, with several brought off lifeboats on stretchers. Six people were recovered in a serious condition but were later pronounced dead.

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One volunteer told how migrants were using shoes to bale water out of the sinking boat. She told Reuters “there were too many on the boat”.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman chaired a meeting with Border Force officials this morning and said her “thoughts and prayers” were with those affected by the deaths in the Channel.

In a statement, she said: “My thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the tragic loss of life in the Channel today.

“I have spoken with our Border Force teams this morning who have been supporting the French authorities in response to this incident.”

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said the latest incident was an “appalling, deeply shocking tragedy”.

“We must stop these crossings and defeat the criminal people smugglers.

“There can be no more headline-chasing gimmicks or madcap schemes that just make everything worse,” he wrote on Twitter.

The rescue operation involved two British ships and several French vessels, according to a statement from France’s Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.

It began after information was received from a patrol boat that a migrant boat was sinking off Sangatte, which is around five miles from the French coast, the statement said.

The 37 people rescued by French resources are currently being cared for in Calais, authorities said.

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A dozen people were rescued by British means, including by a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crew, which was launched shortly before 4am.

Those on board were transferred to Dover with survivors from another RNLI operation also on the boat, the statement said.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the incident “underscores the need for meaningful action” to reduce dangerous crossings, and urged the Government to focus on creating an “orderly and humane asylum system”.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in today’s sinking of a boat in the English Channel. Our hearts go out to the victims, survivors, and their loved ones. We also thank the rescuers who helped save many lives under harrowing circumstances,” he said.

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He accused the government of “focusing on passing expensive and unworkable legislation and shutting down existing safe ways to get to the UK”, adding: “There are constructive alternatives we have set out that would create an orderly and humane asylum system.”

Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, described it as an “appalling and preventable tragedy”.

“Those who died were not just statistics, but individual people: someone’s children, someone’s siblings, and possibly someone’s parents. This terrible loss of life demonstrates yet again the need for a system of safe passage to the UK for refugees.”

Asli Tatliadim, head of campaigns at Refugee Action, said the incident had been “predictable and inevitable” because the government’s “hostile deterrent policies are designed to keep people out and not keep people safe”.

“Until the government creates more ways for people to travel to the UK to claim asylum, more people will die trying to reach safety here,” she added.

Natalie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, said the fatal incident reinforced the need for joint patrols in the Channel.

She said: “Today’s tragedy underlines why we must stop the small boats to keep people safe and prevent loss of life in the Channel.

“These overcrowded and unseaworthy deathtraps should obviously be stopped by the French authorities from leaving the French coast in the first place.

“The time has come for joint patrols on the French coast and a cross-Channel security zone before any more lives are lost.”

A UK government spokesperson said: “We are aware of an incident in the Channel. HM Coastguard are working on a co-ordinated response and further information will be provided in due course.”

At least 50 people are thought to have drowned attempting to cross the Channel since 2018, while others have lost their lives attempting to board lorries and trains in France, or walk through the Channel Tunnel.

On Thursday, people were rescued from another sinking dinghy that had reached British waters. The RNLI said it pulled several people from the water but believed everyone was accounted for.

The previous day, French authorities reported six children suffering from hypothermia had been taken to hospital after their boat went down off the coast near Sangatte.

Meanwhile, the number of migrants crossing the British Channel over the last five-and-a-half years reached more than 100,000 on Thursday, after 755 people crossed the Channel in small boats that day – marking the highest daily number so far this year.

Some 343 people in six boats were detected crossing the Channel on Friday, according to Home Office figures.

It means more than 1,000 made the journey over two days and takes the provisional total for the year so far to more than 16,000.

It came as the Home Office came under fire as all asylum seekers were ordered to move off the housing barge Bibby Stockholm after bacteria was found in its water system.

All 39 people were evacuated from the barge and will be temporarily placed back in hotels, with a date yet to be confirmed for the migrants to return to the floating accommodation.

The department said all 39 of those on board had been disembarked as a “precautionary measure” after samples from the water system showed levels of Legionella requiring further investigation.

The Home Office said no migrants have fallen sick or developed Legionnaires’ disease, which is a serious type of pneumonia, and that they are all being provided with “appropriate advice and support”.

But, after the evacuation, the Home Office was accused of “startling incompetence”.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis said the barge would not serve as a “solution” to the backlog even without the presence of the bacteria.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The primary thing that’s been revealed has been the startling incompetence of the Home Office itself… It’s really, really hard to understand how, at all layers, this could not be caught early”.

Mr Kinnock also wrote to his opposite number on Saturday asking what the Home Office knew about the risk of the bacteria being present before moving migrants onto the barge.

Department officials are understood to have been told by Dorset Council on Wednesday evening about the discovery of initial results indicating that the bacteria was present, but the transfer of a further six migrants on to the barge still went ahead on Thursday.

Government sources said the UK Health Security Agency then told ministers on Thursday that Legionella had been found in the vessel’s water system and advised them that they needed to remove those six migrants.

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