Huge rescue operation is launched after migrant boat 'got into difficulty' in the Channel

A fishing crew have given a shocking account of how drowning migrants ‘screamed’ for help – as it was confirmed that at least four died after a small boat capsized in the freezing Channel this morning.

The captain of the fishing vessel described the scenes as ‘something out of a Second World War movie’, saying they pulled more than 30 people from the water – but at least one could not be saved.

‘It was like something out of a Second World War movie, there were people in the water everywhere, screaming,’ the skipper, named as Raymond, told Sky News.

Although 43 people were recovered and are receiving treatment, four have now been confirmed dead – with fears the grim toll could rise.

Rishi Sunak – who announced a package cracking down on Channel crossings just hours before the latest grim development – opened PMQs this afternoon by voicing ‘sorrow’ at the ‘tragic loss of human life’. Keir Starmer said it was a ‘reminder that the criminal gangs running those routes put the lives of the desperate at risk and profit from their misery’.

Making a statement to MPs afterwards, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the deaths are ‘the most sobering reminder possible of why we need to end these crossings’.

She said the premier’s package was a recognition that the government ‘needs to go much further’ and stop people-smugglers.

Mr Sunak declared yesterday that more resource would be put into deterring small boats, smashing people-smuggling gangs and reforming the ‘obsolete’ asylum system.

Those coming from Albania are set to be sent straight back on the basis that it is a ‘safe’ country, while there will be a tougher approach to illegal immigration and a huge effort to clear the massive backlog in asylum applications.

Although the proposals sparked a backlash, Tories today insisted that the latest ‘awful’ events demonstrated ‘exactly why we need to stop this exploitation’. They dismissed claims that there are not enough official routes for seeking refuge in the UK, pointing to the large numbers coming from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Experts warned that migrants needed to understand ‘we cannot guarantee your safety’ when they embark on the desperate trip across the Channel.

It is believed to be the first major rescue operation launched in the Channel since November last year, when at least 27 migrants perished after their dinghy submerged.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the deaths overnight showed ‘debates about asylum seekers are not about statistics, but precious human lives’.

The first images from the scene, obtained exclusively by Sky News, show a number of migrants being rescued from an inflatable boat

Footage apparently of the rescue shows the dinghy seemingly barely afloat in the freezing waters

Huge rescue operation is launched after migrant boat carrying more than 30 people capsized in freezing cold English Channel. The circle is one of the RNLI rescue boats

Paramedics and Air Ambulance personnel at Dover Marina this morning as the search operation continued

A lifejacket floating in the sea close to where the Channel tragedy is believed to have happened

Boris backs push to ignore ECHR and send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Boris Johnson is backing a Tory push to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and resume sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Legislation being introduced in the House of Commons later is designed to heap pressure on Rishi Sunak to press ahead with the controversial policy.

The PM vowed yesterday to restart flights, part of a deal done with the Rwandan government to host Channel arrivals as applications are being processed.

But Tory MP Jonathan Gullis – who is putting forward the Asylum Seekers (Removal to Safe Countries) Bill – said it ‘will ensure that Parliament, not unaccountable foreign judges in Europe, have the final say’.

Along with Mr Johnson, former home secretary Priti Patel is said to be backing the legislation.

Other ‘co-sponsors’ include Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries and Tim Loughton.

The proposals are being introduced as a 10-minute rule Bill – a route that rarely results in an addition to the statute book.

However, it is likely to force a vote and turn up the heat on Mr Sunak over his approach to the ECHR – which is separate to the EU.

Raymond said he had been woken by a member of his crew who declared ‘there are migrants alongside the boat’.

They counted 45 people trying to cling on to the side of the vessel.

‘The dinghy started to drift away, so I steamed towards the dinghy and we secured it with a rope to the side of the boat,’ he said.

‘We were trying to pull them off the dinghy.’

The captain said ‘adrenaline kicked in’ and they managed to drag 31 on board over the course of two hours, all of whom are thought to have survived.

Those rescued came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal and India, and had apparently paid £5,000 to a smuggler in France for passage into the UK.

However, the skipper said when they started heading into port, they realised one migrant had attached himself to the other side of the boat and drowned.

A Government spokesman said: ‘At 3.05am today, authorities were alerted to an incident in the Channel concerning a migrant small boat in distress. After a co-ordinated search and rescue operation led by HM Coastguard, it is with regret that there have been four confirmed deaths as a result of this incident, investigations are ongoing and we will provide further information in due course.

‘This is a truly tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the friends and families of all those who have lost their lives today.’

In her statement to MPs, Ms Braverman said: ‘This is an ongoing search-and-rescue incident but I can confirm at the time of making this statement tragically there have been four fatalities.

‘It would be inappropriate for me to go into further detail at this time.

‘There is a multi-agency response to this terrible tragedy.’

Ms Braverman said: ‘This morning’s tragedy, like the loss of 27 people on one November day last year, is the most sobering reminder possible of why we have to end these crossings.’

She told MPs that a full statement ‘will be provided to the House in due course once the facts have been fully established and the necessary investigative work completed’.

Ms Braverman also expressed her sympathies and paid tribute to those working on the search-and-rescue operation.

She said: ‘I know that everyone in this House and across the country will join me in expressing our profound sadness and deepest sympathies for everyone affected by this terrible event.

‘I know that they will also join me in offering our profound gratitude to those working on the search-and-rescue operation.’

Ms Braverman said: ‘We are strengthening our resolve, we are strengthening our will and we are strengthening our efforts to do whatever it takes as the Prime Minister has pledged to stop the boats crossing the Channel.’

She also told the Commons: ‘The deal that we signed last month with colleagues in France is a big step forward in our cross-Channel co-operation. For we share a common challenge.

‘That new arrangement will see more dangerous and unnecessary crossings being prevented. Last year, our joint efforts prevented over 23,000 unnecessary journeys.

‘To date, this year, that number is 31,000. That in itself is insufficient, but it’s a step in the right direction. The agreement that we have struck afresh with the French will go further.’

Shocking images have been screened showing survivors of the incident standing in the collapsed dinghy knee deep in water – sandwiched between the sides of the inflatable.

Some of the group are seen wearing red life jackets but one man could be seen in short-sleeved shirt in freezing conditions in the images screened on Sky News.

It appears the flimsy inflatable suffered a puncture forcing the boat to lower into the water with the sides going up vertically as the terrified people on board had no alternative but to stand.

The Marine Traffic radar website this morning showed a cluster of vessels in the channel between Lydd in Kent and the Cap Gris Nez in France.

The inflatable boat is believed to have capsized some five miles off Dungeness, forcing more than 40 people into the icy sea, where survival times would be extremely low.

A spokesman for the Channel Maritime Prefecture in France said that the French Navy and a ‘a fishing vessel in the area is also assisting in the rescue.’

He said that the boat set off from coast of northern France in the early hours of Wednesday.

Weather conditions were said to be ‘extremely cold,’ despite calm sea conditions.

Refugee charities seized on the episode to slam the Government for ‘hostile policies’ that are ‘designed to keep people out, and not keep people safe’.

But Dover MP Natalie Ephicke said it underlined the ‘great urgency’ of stopping the small boats from crossing.

The backbencher said the government must act to ‘bring this to an end before we have further loss of life’.

Tory MP Danny Kruger told the Commons: ‘After the Second World War, Winston Churchill sent British Conservative lawyers to help to draft the European Convention on Human Rights and that’s something that we can be proud of in this country.

‘In an age of mass migration, the ECHR is now limiting our ability to control our borders. In light of the tragedy in the Channel this morning, does the Prime Minister agree he should do as Churchill did, draft a new framework for refugees and human rights, including legal proofs, but one way or another, and if necessary, alone, we must be prepared to leave the ECHR.’

Mr Sunak replied: ‘As I told the House yesterday, our new legislation will deliver a system whereby a person who comes here illegally will have no right to stay and will be removed to their own country or a safe third country alternative.

‘That is the system that the British people want to see. That’s a system that we will deliver and I look forward to hearing whether the party opposite will support it.’

Fellow Conservative Ben Bradley tweeted: ‘This is tragic and awful, and is exactly why we need to stop this exploitation; stop these gangs who are putting peoples lives at risk; put an end to these deaths in the channel. This practice of crossing in dinghies must stop!’

Former minister Brendan Clarke-Smith told Sky News: ‘We’ve got to stop this happening. The comprehensive set of measures announced yesterday is going to be part of doing that.’

Tory MPs said the news from the Channel underlined the need for action

Former Border Force director general Tony Smith said migrants needed to understand the UK cannot ‘guarantee their safety’ if they attempt to cross.

‘I think we can only count our blessings that we haven’t seen more incidents like this,’ he told Sky.

‘But we really do need to hammer home the message through media not to do this, not to pay smugglers to get into a boat.

‘It’s very tempting when you can see the cliffs of Dover from the beaches of Calais, sometimes it looks very simple, but these are dangerous waterways…

‘We’ve really got to discourage people from trying this and not falling into the hands of human smugglers who really don’t care about human life.

‘I’ve dealt with them in my career. They’re not interested in that they’re only interested in the money.’

Mr Smith said that would-be migrants ‘don’t want to be detected’ on the French coast because they will be stopped, and often choose to embark at night.

‘This will have been dark, it will have been cold, the people will have been frightened but they would have been assured by the pilot or by somebody behind this, ‘This is easy. Don’t worry about this. It’s not very far. Just get in here, and everything’s going to be okay.’

‘And that’s what happens. So that’s why the messaging is so important… please do not, do not engage with human smugglers to get across the English Channel.

‘We have to stop this, we have to stop the boats because I’m afraid this is highly, highly dangerous.

‘When a vessel runs into trouble on the English Channel, we cannot guarantee your safety – we can only do everything in our power to try and save lives.

‘But we cannot guarantee that because these are really, really difficult conditions and these are dangerous waters and I’m afraid that message is not played up enough in this whole debate.’

The Archbishop of Canterbury said: ‘I’m praying for the victims of today’s terrible events in the Channel.

‘It’s another reminder that debates about asylum seekers are not about statistics, but precious human lives.

‘May God comfort those who mourn, those who survived and all those who work to save lives at sea.’

A coastguard helicopter at work over the Channel amid the hunt for victims of the boat tragedy

RNLI Shore Crew await as RNLI Morrell returns from helping rescue migrants crossing the English Channel

Border Force rescue response is now ‘well-honed’ machine

Former Border Force director general Tony Smith told Sky News that the operational response to incidents in the Channel was now well-honed and ‘an awful lot of lives’ have been saved.

‘I think we can only count our blessings that we haven’t seen more incidents like this,’ he said.