Four migrants die attempting to cross English Channel

12 July 2024, 08:00 | Updated: 12 July 2024, 10:27

Four migrants have died attempting to cross the English Channel overnight.

A boat carrying as many as 67 migrants had to be rescued off the coast of Boulogne sur Mer, northern France.

63 are believed to have been rescued, according to French outlet BMF TV, but four are suspected dead, the French coastguard has said.

A French navy patrol vessel arrived on the scene after reports emerged of migrants falling into the Channel.

French authorities have said they are still collecting information on the incident.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage reacted to the deaths on social media this morning.

He wrote on X: "4 deaths in the Channel this morning, the new Government had better start moving fast."

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said in a post on X: "The further loss of life in the Channel this morning is truly awful. My thoughts are with all those affected."Criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk.

"We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue & bring down dangerous smuggler gangs."

James Cleverly, the former home secretary, added: "more deaths in the channel are a tragedy".

He added on social media: "As a country we must do everything in our power to stop the boats and put an end to this vile trade in human suffering."

This puts the death toll of Channel crossings at 19 for the year so far.

Several thousand people have arrived in the UK via the English Channel so far this year, many in dangerous small boats that put passenger's lives at risk.

New PM Sir Keir Starmer has promised to "smash" the smuggling gangs facilitating this, setting up a new Border Security Command to end small boat crossings.

Launching the new border command, Yvette Cooper said: “We can’t carry on like this. We need to tackle the root of the problem, going after these dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice.”

As part of Labour's new approach, Keir Starmer declared the Conservative party's Rwanda plan "dead and buried."

Speaking at a press conference, Sir Keir said: “The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started.

“It has never been a deterrent. Look at the numbers that have come over in the first six and a bit months of this year. They are record numbers. That is the problem that we are inheriting.

“It has never acted as a deterrent, almost the opposite because everybody has worked out, particularly the gangs that run this trade, that the chance of ever going to Rwanda was so slim, less than 1 per cent, that it was never a deterrent.

“The chances were of not going, not being processed and staying here in paid-for accommodation for a very, very long time.

“It has had the complete opposite effect. And I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent.”