Channel tragedy sees one dead and another critical as migrant boat founders
A person has died and another is in a critical condition after a boat carrying migrants got into difficulty in the Channel.
At least 66 people were on the boat, which got into trouble around five miles off the French coast, Premar Manche, a French agency which monitors the Channel, said. The survivors have been taken to Calais and the injured person is in hospital.
French authorities said that a search is continuing for other any others who may have been onboard the boat that was spotted at around 12.30am local time. One of the boats tubes had deflated in the incident near Grand-Fort Philippe, 14 miles east of Calais.
Rescue ships reached the boat around 30 minutes after it was seen with people already in the water. One person was pronounced dead and another was taken to Calais hospital by helicopter in a critical condition, the agency said. The other survivors were brought to land by several rescue boats.
So far this year more than 29,000 people have reached the UK in small boats which is around a third down on last year and it was the first attempt in 11 days due to bad weather. The government has said that stopping the boats crossing the English Channel is a political priority.
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Tory minister Andrew Griffith described it as a tragedy as he defended Government efforts to stop crossings. The science minister told Sky News: "All of these are tragic stories and it shows once again the importance of cracking down on the terrible trade of traffickers in the Channel. It's not a safe route, it's not a safe crossing, we shouldn't need to do that and it's really important that the Government is taking action." He claimed that the Illegal Migration Act and the Rwanda scheme will "remove the incentive" for people to make the crossing.
Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said: “This is yet another terrible and avoidable tragedy. Our thoughts are with the victim, the survivors and their loved ones. These appalling deaths are becoming too common and there is an urgent need to put in place safe routes so people don’t have to take dangerous journeys across the world’s busiest shipping lane.
“Instead the Government is pushing ahead with its unworkable and unprincipled Rwanda plan as well as shutting down existing safe ways to get to the UK. People flee persecution and violence out of desperation, to find safety and protect their families. The Government must take action now and respond in a compassionate way to prevent future tragedies and protect human life.
“There are constructive alternatives we have set out that would create a fair and humane asylum system. We stand ready to work with the Government to put them in place.”
Labour Party Chair Anneliese Dodds reportedly said: "One can barely imagine what it must have been like in the middle of the night in the freezing cold water, the terror and fear of people on that vessel. Yet again this underlines the criminal people smuggling gangs are putting individuals in absolutely appalling danger, they're profiting from this absolutely disgracefully and more needs to be done to break up these criminal smuggling gangs."
Last August six men from Afghanistan died and two were missing after a boat carrying migrants from the war-ravaged country sank in the English Channel. Harrowing images showed people struggling in the sinking boat, and others of people clinging on to the side of a vessel while struggling in the cold water emerged. A rescue operation involving five French ships, one helicopter and two British ships was launched on August 12 after the boat sank off the coast of Northern France, a statement from France's Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said.
UK net migration hit a record breaking 745,000 last year - more than three times higher than promised by the Tories in their election manifesto. Rishi Sunak was warned the Tories face a "do or die" moment by right-wing backbenchers after the Office for National Statistics dramatically revised its estimates for the year to December 2022 by an additional 139,000. It originally said 606,000 more people arrived in the UK than departed during that period.
Official figures published this month put net migration for the year to June 2023 at 672,000 as an estimated 1.18 million people moved to the UK and 508,000 left. People coming to the UK to study was the largest driver of net migration from outside the EU (39%), followed by work (33%), mostly in the NHS and social care. The war in Ukraine, arrivals of Afghans and Hongkongers also partly fuelled the rise, but the number fell from 19% the year before to 9% last year.
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