Three men have been arrested following the deaths of five people, including a seven-year-old girl, in the Channel.
The trio, who have not been named, include two Sudanese nationals, aged 22 and 19, and one South Sudanese national, also aged 19. They were on Wednesday being held on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally after the tragedy, early on Tuesday morning.
Craig Turner, the National Crime Agency's deputy director of investigations, said: "This tragic incident once again demonstrates the threat to life posed by these crossings and brings into focus why it is so important to target the criminal gangs involved in organising them. We will do all we can with partners in the UK and France to secure evidence, identify those responsible for this event, and bring them to justice."
The seven-year-old victim, who is believed to have been partially sighted, was killed alongside three men and a woman aged in her early 30s. It has been reported the youngster's heartbroken father saw his daughter die.
The doomed 12-metre Zodiac dinghy, which was designed to safely accommodate just 20 people, left the seaside village of Wimereux, 25 miles from Calais, at 5am, packed with 112 people. It is believed about 50 had paid for a place onboard and helped carry it down the beach before getting to the waterfront.
But it is claimed another group of people then emerged and "rushed the boat", which went on to hit a sandbank and capsize. Some 49 people were rescued, but 58 others refused to leave the vessel and continued their journey towards the UK after managing to restart the boat’s motor. They arrived in Dover at lunchtime, escorted by a French naval patrol boat, before transferring to an RNLI lifeboat.
Two people were taken off in wheelchairs and one person was stretchered off into an ambulance. The French Maritime Prefecture later published a photo of the boat showing mainly men sitting on each side of it with one leg inside and the other touching the water.
The horror came just hours after Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill cleared Parliament after months of deadlock.
The legislation declares the African nation is a safe place to send asylum seekers, even though the Supreme Court found in November it is not.
It was revealed yesterday that 402 migrants, including young children and babies, arrived in the UK on seven small boats on the same day as the tragedy. The provisional total for the year so far is now 6,667 - 20 per cent higher than this time last year. Some 29,437 made the journey in the whole of 2023, down 36 per cent on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022. The latest deaths take the total known to have perished risking the crossing so far this year to 14. Five died on January 14, before a further three on February 28, and another on March 3.