Crammed boat crosses the Channel despite five dying

AN overcrowded migrant boat that capsized in the Channel leaving five dead, including a seven-year-old girl, was allowed to continue its journey to the UK by the French navy.

-  Robert Kellaway and Peter Allen

Three men, a woman and the little girl lost their lives yesterday just hours after Rishi Sunak's Rwanda Bill had finally cleared Parliament.

Smugglers crammed at least 112 people on to a dinghy designed for 50 and put them to sea at around 5am from Wimereux in northern France.

A French source investigating the incident last night said a group of "young men" had rushed the 40ft long inflatable just after it launched, making it dangerously overloaded.

The boat's engine then failed, causing panic on board as it hit a sandbank, tipping dozens of migrants into the bitterly cold waters.

A Calais official admitted that while 49 were rescued and brought back to France, 58 people remained on board and refused to leave.

Among those who fell from the boat and were taken back to France was the father of the girl who had died before his eyes.

He was rescued by emergency services who returned to Wimereux, between Boulogne and Calais, where he burst into tears and fell into the arms of charity workers "in a daze".

Unseaworthy

Dany Patoux, from the Osmose 62 refugee charity, saw the father and said: "We knew the little girl. We have photos with her, with a big smile on her face, in the hope of a better life."