More than 20 refugees are believed to have died when a boat sank in the Channel; Boris Johnson to meet Cobra – Latest

British Red Cross Chief Executive Mike Adamson said: “The reports of more casualties in the Channel today are truly heartbreaking and come very soon after other recent deaths along the route.

“Our thoughts are with his loved ones, who may not yet know what has happened.”

He told the PA: “No one risks their lives unless they are absolutely desperate and feel they have no other choice.

“Everyone deserves to be in safety and it must be unacceptable to us that people have no choice but to make dangerous crossings in search of it.

“There is no easy answer, but we urge the government to reconsider its plans to make access to the UK asylum system difficult.

“It must begin with ambitious plans for new safer routes and a commitment to resettle 10,000 people a year.”

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It is deeply saddened to hear that more ordinary people have lost their lives in a difficult UK journey in search of safety.

“How many tragedies like this should we see before the government radically changes its approach to an ambitious expansion of safe routes for those men, women and children in dire need of protection?

“Every day, people are forced to run away from their homes through no fault of their own. The time has come to put an end to the cruel and ineffective strategy of punishing or driving out those who try to seek security in our country.

Jean-Marc Puisseau, the head of the ports of Calais and Boulogne, told BBC News that he understood there were 50 people on the boat: “What I have heard is that five or six people have died so far, which There are five or six.”

Downing Street said Prime Minister Boris Johnson would chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee in response to migrant deaths in the Channel.

Reuters reports that Calais mayor Natacha Bouchert told BFM television that the death toll has now risen to 27, minutes after another mayor put the tally at 24.

The local Coast Guard said they were yet to confirm the number of deaths, adding that rescue services had found about 20 people in the water, of whom only two were conscious.

They estimated that there were about 30 people on board the canoe before it capsized.

Unconfirmed reports said that an inflatable dinghy capsized near Calais. A rescue operation is still underway with both French and British officers involved in the search for survivors.

The French interior ministry said in a statement that French patrol ships found bodies and people unconscious in the water after a fisherman raised the alarm about the accident, AFP reports. Police then said in a statement that “more than 20” people had been killed.

Local officials said that three helicopters and three boats have been deployed to join the search operation.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmann, who is visiting the scene, wrote on Twitter that “many people” were killed in the incident, adding that “the criminal nature of the smugglers who organize these crossings cannot be condemned enough.” “.

Care4Calais, a charity operating in the North France, Helping Refugees, tweeted:

French media have reported that more than 20 people have died after a boat sank in the Channel.

BBC News reported that “at least 24 people” had been killed. The figure came from a local mayor who was speaking France,

The French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, tweeted: “The shipwreck in the Channel is a tragedy, my thoughts are the many missing and injured, victims of criminal smugglers who take advantage of their distress and misery.”