One person dies after refugee boat in Channel runs into difficulty
One person has died after a boat carrying dozens of refugees ran into difficulties while attempting to cross the Channel, French authorities have said.
At least 66 people had been onboard the craft when it was spotted about five miles (8km) off the coast of Grand-Fort-Philippe at about 12.30am local time on Friday, Premar Manche, a French agency that monitors the Channel, said.
Rescue ships reached the boat about 30 minutes later and one person onboard was pronounced dead. Another person was taken to hospital in Calais by helicopter in a critical condition, the agency said.
It added that sea and air searches of the area continued.
The Cross Griz Nez – a coordination centre for rescue operations in Pas-de-Calais, received a message that a migrant boat was in difficulty around midnight, Premar Manche said.
The centre dispatched the Esvagt Charlie, a state-chartered rescue ship, which took about 30 minutes to reach the wreck site, the agency said.
As the rescue boat approached, at about 1am, the crew informed the onshore teams that one of the boat’s tubes was deflated and that people were in the water. A semi-rigid boat was launched immediately to rescue the shipwrecked people.
The Cross Griz-Nez centre also dspatched four other boats: the Dauphin of the French navy, based in Le Touquet, the Apollo Moon, a state-chartered rescue ship, the semi-rigid SNS 077 Notre Dame de Risban out of Calais and the semi-rigid SNS 276 Notre Dame des Flandres out of Gravelines.
The first of the people in the water were rescued by the Esvagt Charlie at about 1.15am and by 2.15am 59 people had been rescued by the boat, including two unconscious. At the same time, the SNS 276 rescued seven people.
One of the unconscious people was declared dead at the scene and the other was taken by helicopter to Calais hospital in a life-threatening condition.
All the rescued castaways will be taken care of at the port of Calais, Premier Manche said.
Area searches continued by air and sea.
More than 29,000 people have reached England this year in small boats crossing the notoriously dangerous English Channel – about a third down on the previous year.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has made “stopping the boats” one of his key five priorities. To achieve this aim, Sunak is battling on with a plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, despite the supreme court ruling that the policy is unlawful.
The UK government minister Andrew Griffith said the deaths showed why the crossing was “not a safe route” and why Sunak was “cracking down on the terrible trade of people traffickers”.
The science minister, asked for his reaction on Sky News, said: “It shows once again the importance of cracking down on the terrible trade of people traffickers in the Channel. It is not a safe route, it is not a safe crossing. People shouldn’t need to do that.
“It is why it is really important that the government is taking action through things like the illegal migration bill, through the proposals around Rwanda that we debated in parliament earlier this year, to absolutely remove the incentive, break the economic model of people smugglers, so that we can stop this terrible trade.”
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “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.”