Tory Stop the Boats pledge in tatters as 509 cross Channel on day of tragedy

13 August 2023 , 14:06

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At least 58 people were rescued following Saturday's tragedy on the Channel

More than 500 asylum seekers crossed the English Channel yesterday - the day six lives were lost in the latest small boats tragedy.

New Home Office figures reveal 1,600 people made the perilous journey in three days, including 509 on Saturday as Rishi Sunak's 'stop the boats' pledge lies in tatters. Six men, who are believed to have been from Afghanistan, died and at least 58 asylum seekers were rescued in yesterday's tragedy.

It means more than 16,600 asylum seekers have crossed the Channel the start of the year, while the number since 2018 has passed 100,000. Years of Tory failure means the UK has a record backlog of people awaiting an asylum decision, meaning tens of thousands are living in hotels and banned from working.

According to survivors, around 65 people had originally boarded the overloaded vessel before a passing ship saw it sinking off the French coast and raised the alarm at around 4.20am. Campaigners have called the deaths an "appalling and preventable tragedy" amid calls for stronger action over people-smuggling gangs. The Refugee Council warned "more people will die" unless more safe routes to the UK are created.

Rishi Sunak has catastrophically failed to deliver on his pledge to stop the boats (AP)

Meanwhile a union chief said they Tories "have blood on their hands". Head of bargaining at the Public and Commercial Services union, Paul O'Connor said: "There is a readily available policy to prevent this tragic loss of life.

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"Unfortunately, our calls on the government to adopt it have fallen on stony ground. It's clear they have no desire to prevent these dangerous crossings.

"Instead, they're pouring taxpayers' money down the drain on policies which are unlawful, unworkable and doomed to failure."

Ministers "want to scapegoat refugees" in a bid to distract from "catastrophic failings" on people's living standards," Mr O'Connor said. "They don't care that people die as a result. They have blood on their hands," he stated.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said action to deter criminal gangs facilitating the journeys is "desperately" needed. Home Secretary Suella Braverman described the incident as a "tragic loss of life" and said she had chaired a meeting with Border Force officials later on Saturday.

More than 16,000 people have crossed the Channel since January (AFP via Getty Images)

It comes after the Government was accused of allowing its "small boats week" of linked announcements on immigration to descend into farce following the removal of dozens of asylum seekers from the Bibby Stockholm barge.

Senior Conservative backbencher David Davis said the "startling incompetence" of the Home Office had been laid bare after all 39 people on board the 500-capacity vessel were disembarked due to the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply.

Minister David TC Davies on Sunday defended the Government, saying its evacuation of people from the vessel "actually demonstrates how we're putting the safety of people first". Asked whether the incident points to a wider failure within the Home Office, he told Times Radio: "No, it doesn't. It doesn't at all. The checks were being made."

But shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said a "better, fairer system" is needed to tackle the backlog of asylum applications and cut the need for temporary accommodation. She told the same programme that prosecutions of people smugglers are "falling" under the current Government.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton said the Government's "small boats week" of linked announcements on immigration was a "hostage to fortune". He told Times Radio: "I think it was probably not a good idea to have a small boats week.

"It was a hostage to fortune and clearly it depends on how many people are risking their lives coming across the Channel, which is dependent on the weather and how people smugglers are operating." But Mr Loughton, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, also said part of the problem lies with France, calling on the country's authorities to intervene.

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"Without the French actually intercepting and detaining those boats, then we have a problem stopping that," he said. "Secondly, the Home Office has got to do a lot better in speeding up the processing times of those people who do then come to the UK to see whether they have a legitimate asylum claim or not."

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Dave Burke