- It comes almost two years to the day since the worst English Channel migrant boat disaster ever saw 27 people drown
- The Boulogne prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation into the tragedy as Home Secretary Suella Braverman will chair a meeting with Border Force officials later
Six people have died and around 50 have been rescued after a boat carrying migrants sank in the English Channel on Saturday morning, French authorities have said.
A rescue operation involving five French ships, one helicopter and two British ships was launched this morning 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.
Efforts so far…
The RNLI said a lifeboat crew was sent to the Channel in the early hours of the morning.
A number of people were seen being brought off a lifeboat on stretchers in Dover.
An emergency services source said the victims perished ‘at around 5am in poor conditions’ on Saturday after trying to get to Britain on a voyage organised by people smugglers.
‘Around 45 people were saved, and a rescue operation is still underway, but some five people are thought to have died,’ the source said soon after 11am.
The source said some 66 people were thought to be aboard ‘one or maybe two boats’ that sunk.
Number of casualties
He said that 55 people had been found by late morning, with 11 still missing. He said: ‘Bodies were lifted out of the water and those in the worst condition were transported to hospital by helicopter.’
Among the six victims – who were all men, according to a spokesman for France’s Maritime Prefecture – there is an Afghan national in his 20s who was evacuated by a French helicopter but declared dead on arrival in Le Touquet.
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A spokesperson for the French Coastguard said: ‘This Saturday, August 12 the regional operational center for surveillance and rescue (CROSS) Gris-Nez is informed by the public service patrol boat Cormoran that a migrant boat was sinking off Sangatte.
‘The Cormorant then launched its semi-rigid to rescue the castaways. In parallel, the CROSS Gris Nez mobilised.
‘At this stage, under the coordination of the CROSS Gris Nez, about 50 people were rescued, some of them by British means.
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‘Unfortunately, six people were recovered in serious condition and one of them, evacuated by helicopter to the hospital in Calais was declared dead.
‘An investigation was opened by the Boulogne public prosecutor’s office.’
Elisabeth Borne, France’s prime minister, said: ‘This morning, a migrant boat capsized off Calais. My thoughts are with the victims. I salute the commitment of the rescue teams mobilized around the Navy, which saved around fifty shipwrecked people.’ Ms Borne said Herve Berville, France’s Seas Minister, was on his way to Calais.
The Boulogne prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation into the tragedy, said the source. Home Secretary Suella Braverman will chair a meeting with Border Force officials later.
It also happened 2 years ago
This disaster comes almost two years to the day since the worst English Channel migrant boat disaster ever saw 27 people drown.
Their inflatable dinghy collapsed beneath them on November 24, 2021, and they were later identified as 16 Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan, four Afghans, and five other nationalities.
French emergency workers in a telephone centre were later blamed for failing to answer their distress calls properly, but the people smugglers responsible for organising the boat have never been brought to justice.
