Dozens die in biggest loss of life in English Channel
Johnson urges French to stem migrant flow after 31 drown as dinghy sinks
BORIS Johnson has urged France to step up efforts to stem the flow of migrants crossing the Channel after a boat capsized off the French coast with the loss of 31 lives.
The International Organisation for Migration said it was the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014.
The Prime Minister said the tragic incident showed the operations that have taken place to date “haven’t been enough”.
He said he wanted to work with the French authorities to “demolish” the business model of human traffickers who were “literally getting away with murder”.
French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the dead included five women and a girl.
He told an impromptu news conference in Calais that the dinghy which sank had been “very frail”, likening it to “a pool you blow up in your garden”.
He said 34 people were believed to be on the boat. Authorities found 31 bodies and two survivors, while one person was missing.
Four people had been arrested near to the Belgian border, he said, adding: “We suspect that they were directly linked to this particular crossing.”
An emergency search was sparked when a fishing boat sounded the alarm earlier yesterday after spotting several people in the sea off the coast of France.
A rescue operation was under way in the Channel by air and sea as French and British authorities searched for anyone still in the water.
Speaking to broadcasters in Downing Street, Mr Johnson – who chaired a meeting of the Government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee – said he was “shocked, appalled and deeply saddened” by what had happened. “What this shows is that the gangs who are sending people to sea in these dangerous crafts will literally stop at nothing,” he said.
“But what I’m afraid it also shows is that the operation that is being conducted by our friends on the beaches, supported as you know with £54 million from the UK to help patrol the beaches, the technical support we’ve been giving, they haven’t been enough.
“Our offer is to increase
our support but also to work together with our partners on the beaches concerned, on the launching grounds for these boats. That’s something I hope will be acceptable now in view of what has happened.”
He suggested the French government had not always approached the problem in the way the British believed it should.
“We’ve had difficulties persuading some of our partners, particularly the French, to do things in a way that we think the situation deserves,” he said.
“I understand the difficulties that all countries face, but what we want now is to do more together and that’s the offer we are making.”
BBC Newsnight’s policy editor, Lewis Goodall, said he understood about 25 boats had attempted the crossing so far during the day.
It comes amid record numbers of migrants making the crossing from France to the UK. More than 25,700 people have made the dangerous journey to the UK in small boats this year – more than three times the 2020 total.
It is thought at least 10 other people have died in the past few weeks while attempting to make the crossing.
The French MP for Calais said the English Channel risked becoming an “open sky graveyard” unless the UK and France worked together to find a solution.
Pierre-henri Dumont told Sky News: “We all need, both sides of the Channel, to stop making migrants an internal argument with internal policies and try to figure out how to find a solution.
“The Channel right now is becoming the new Mediterranean Sea, it’s like an open sky graveyard. We must find a way to end it.”
Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, a refugee and migrant rights charity, said allowing refugees to drown was tantamount to collateral murder by governments.
“The responsibility for these deaths lies with Europe and the UK who have abjectly failed to create safe corridors for the sliver of a fraction of the world’s refugees who risk their lives on dangerous journeys to arrive on our shores.”