At least 4 dead after boat capsizes in English channel

GBNEWS24DESK//

At least four people died when a small boat apparently packed with migrants capsized in freezing temperatures in the Channel overnight, the UK government said on Wednesday.

Dozens of others were plucked from the waters of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes in a large-scale rescue operation involving UK and French emergency services.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is trying to tighten rules to prevent record numbers of migrants from attempting the crossing, called the capsize a “tragic loss of human life”.

Interior minister Suella Braverman said the fatalities — and the loss of 27 lives in November last year — were “the most sobering reminder” of the need to cut off the route.

“Crossing the Channel in unseaworthy vessels is lethally dangerous,” she told parliament, promising closer cooperation with the French authorities.

“It is for this reason above all that we are trying to destroy the business model of the people smugglers.”

The charity Refugee Action said the deaths were “predictable and avoidable”, while the Care4Calais group called the UK government’s failure to make safe routes available “utterly shameful”.

Sunak’s spokesman dismissed such criticisms as inappropriate.

“The government is firmly fixed on resolving this issue,” he told reporters.

Ministers are acting to end “vulnerable people being exploited”, while Britain has accepted hundreds of thousands of individuals through safe routes over a number of years, he added.

Government sources said earlier that 43 people were rescued, including more than 30 who had fallen overboard, with fears the death toll will rise.