One lifeless, 50 rescued after small boat incident in Channel – French authorities
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ne individual has died and 5 others are in a critical situation after a ship carrying migrants sank within the Channel, French authorities have mentioned.
Two British ships and a number of other French vessels have been concerned in a search and rescue operation, France’s Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea mentioned.
Early on Saturday morning, info was acquired from a patrol boat {that a} migrant boat was sinking off Sangatte.
Six folks had been recovered in a critical situation, certainly one of whom was then taken by helicopter to Calais hospital and declared lifeless, an announcement from the prefecture mentioned.
HM Coastguard are engaged on a co-ordinated response and additional info might be supplied sooner or later
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is anticipated to chair a gathering with Border Force officers in a while Saturday morning.
A UK Government spokesperson mentioned: “We are aware of an incident in the Channel. HM Coastguard are working on a co-ordinated response and further information will be provided in due course.”
Dover Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crew with rescue groups from Folkestone and Langdon Bay and South East Coast Ambulance have additionally been despatched to reply, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) mentioned.
The RNLI mentioned the crew set off simply earlier than 4am.
An investigation has additionally been opened by the Boulogne prosecutor’s workplace.
It comes after 755 folks crossed the English Channel in small boats on Thursday, the very best each day quantity up to now this yr, confirming the full since 2018 has handed 100,000.
Since present information started on January 1 2018, 100,715 migrants have arrived within the UK after making the journey, in keeping with evaluation of Government information by the PA news company.
Thursday’s figures had been recorded as one other main search and rescue operation was launched after 17 migrants went overboard and had been pulled from the water.
The Home Office mentioned they had been all taken ashore for medical checks.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock mentioned the most recent incident was an “appalling, deeply shocking tragedy”.
“We must stop these crossings and defeat the criminal people smugglers.
“There can be no more headline-chasing gimmicks or madcap schemes that just make everything worse,” he wrote on Twitter.
Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, mentioned the incident “underscores the need for meaningful action” to cut back harmful crossings, and urged the Government to give attention to creating an “orderly and humane asylum system”.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in today’s sinking of a boat in the English Channel. Our hearts go out to the victims, survivors, and their loved ones. We also thank the rescuers who helped save many lives under harrowing circumstances,” he mentioned.
He accused the Government of “focusing on passing expensive and unworkable legislation and shutting down existing safe ways to get to the UK”, including: “There are constructive alternatives we have set out that would create an orderly and humane asylum system.”