Rescuers ‘too late’ to save Channel migrants after French charity receives distress call

Update 15.12.22: On the afternoon of December 15 2022, the Home Office released a new statement on the tragedy with amended timings. It said its search and rescue efforts had started at 2.16am on 14 December, the fishing vessel had arrived at 3.04am, and that its original claim that the UK was not alerted to the boat until 3.05am had been an error.

Questions have been raised over the speed of rescue response to the latest English Channel drowning tragedy as the search continues for more survivors and victims.

Dozens of people were plunged into the icy water when their boat deflated in darkness in the early hours of Wednesday.

At least four died, with fears the toll could be higher.

British officials say they were alerted to the unfolding disaster 3am, but a French migrant charity says it received a distress call more than an hour earlier and alerted French authorities.

Passing fishermen pulled as many survivors as they could to safety after hearing screams and cries for help.

The captain of the fishing vessel told Sky Newshow survivors tried desperately to swim for help.

“There were people in the water everywhere, screaming,” he said. When the crew eventually pulled away to take the rescued migrants to Dover, they realised one man had drowned after attaching himself to the side of the boat.

Survivors told the crew they had come from countries including Afghanistan and Iraq, and paid £5,000 each to smugglers for the crossing.

The captain said he called the UK Coastguard just before 3am, and the government said authorities were alerted at 3.05am.

“After a coordinated 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,” a spokesperson added. “Investigations are ongoing and we will provide further information in due course.”

However, the Utopia56 charity, which is based in northern France, said it received a voice note at 1.53am from migrants, believed to be on the same boat, calling for help and sending their location.

The message said: “We are in a boat, we have a problem. Please help us. There are children and families in the boat, water is coming in from the back. We are in the water.”

Volunteers called the French coastguard minutes later and sent the boat’s location but did not receive a response until almost 3am when they were told British authorities were leading the investigation.

The Independent has not been able to confirm whether the vessel was the same one involved in the disaster, but Utopia56 said all evidence, including the time, location and other details suggested it was.

A spokesperson for Utopia56 said: “Yet again, rescuers intervened too late. The French and British governments must be held accountable.”

The tragedy came just over a year after at least 27 migrants drowned when a boat capsized in the Channel.

An interim report released by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch last month said victims had called both French and British authorities, but that UK rescuers could not find the vessel in distress and a fishing vessel later found the victims’ bodies.

A separate judicial inquiry in France heard that French authorities told drowning migrants they were in British waters and to call 999.

Call logs have shown that dinghy passengers made multiple calls for help for over two hours, but when a survivor begging for help told French authorities people were in the sea, they replied: “Yes, but you are in English waters.”

Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, told parliament that she understood the boat that started sinking on Wednesday was “around the meridian line in the Channel”.

“This is the second time we have seen such a situation,” she said. “It is time for joint patrols to stop boats getting into the water and a joint security zone across the Channel to make sure incidents like this can’t happen.”

Charities have accused the government of putting lives at risk by failing to set up enough alternative routes to remove the need for asylum seekers to use small boats.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “Dozens of people have died off the south coast, yet the government has doubled down on expensive and futile get-tough-quick schemes that only make deaths in the Channel more likely.

“The government must create more routes to reach the UK to claim asylum. Until they do, more people will die trying to reach safety here.”

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, denied that the UK’s asylum system was inadequate and said she was proud of the government’s record.

She praised the efforts of rescuers and first responders but told MPs: “It would be inappropriate for me to go into further detail at this time.”