At least one pregnant woman and three children were among the 27 people who drowned trying to cross the Channel in an inflatable boat, French authorities have said.
Two male survivors – an Iraqi and a Somali – were being treated for exhaustion and hypothermia in a Calais hospital. Most of the 27 people who drowned were Kurds from Iran or Iraq.
The French authorities have arrested five suspected people traffickers in connection with the incident, and the French prosecutors’ office said magistrates are investigating potential charges of homicide, unintentional wounding, assisting illegal migration and criminal conspiracy.
More people making the perilous journey across the Channel have been brought ashore in the UK following the deadliest day of the current migrant crisis.
A group wearing life jackets and wrapped in blankets were seen huddled together on board an RNLI lifeboat before disembarking in Dover on Thursday morning, just a day after a dinghy capsized off the coast of Calais, causing the loss of dozens of lives.
‘Absolute tragedy’
Ahead of talks with Home Secretary Priti Patel, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the loss of 27 lives was an “absolute tragedy” as he blamed human trafficking gangs who promised people the “El Dorado of England” for a large fee.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called for a better system based on “compassion, justice and co-operation across frontiers” following the “devastating loss of human life”, as new figures showed asylum claims made in the UK have risen to the highest level for nearly 20 years.
Boris Johnson called on France to agree to joint police patrols along the French Channel coast, while French politicians pointed the finger at UK authorities for failing to tackle the issue.
Pierre-Henri Dumont, the MP for Calais, rejected the Prime Minister’s proposal as a “crazy solution” that “will not change anything” along the vast shoreline.
The public prosecutor’s office in Lille has confirmed that 17 men, seven women and three adolescents – two boys and a girls – died in the tragedy. It added the survivors were not in danger of losing their lives.
‘El Dorado in England’
Johnson spoke to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday evening in the wake of the tragedy, with French officials saying pregnant women and children were among the dead.
Downing Street said the two men had agreed to “keep all options on the table” in their efforts to break up the human trafficking gangs responsible for putting desperate people at risk in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Darmanin told French radio network RTL the smugglers are “criminals, people who exploit the misery of others, of women and children – there were pregnant women, children who died yesterday on that boat… and for a few thousand euros they promise them ‘El Dorado in England’.
“And, sadly, this has been repeated every day for the last 20 years.”
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