At least four migrants are thought to have been killed after a small boat capsized while trying to cross the English Channel.
Update 1300: death toll rises to four, Braverman says
The Home Secretary Suella Braverman has updated the House of Commons on the English Channel incident, revealing the known death toll of this morning’s capsizing has risen to four. Addressing Parliament, she said: “This is an ongoing search and rescue indecent but I can confirm… tragically there have been four fatalities. It would be inappropriate, Mister Speaker, for me to go into further detail at this time.”
Calling the people smugglers who send migrants to their deaths in return for cash “evil organised criminals”, Braverman told Parliament: “crossing the Channel in unseaworthy vessels is a lethally dangerous endeavour.
“It is for this reason above all that we are working so hard to destroy the business model of the people-smugglers, evil organised criminals who treat human beings as cargo”.
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A multi-craft air and sea rescue operation got underway early on Wednesday morning after a small boat thought to be carrying around 30 migrants capsized while trying to cross the English Channel.
With at least three migrants already reportedly thought to be dead, the event represents yet another instance of vulnerable people dying at the hands of callous human traffickers, as well as the extremely porous open borders policies put in place by Britain’s Tory government.
According to a report on the incident by the BBC, the UK coast guard first received word of an incident on the channel at 3.40 am local time on Wednesday.
A multi-agency rescue operation was soon launched, with the RNLI, the Royal Navy, Border Force and local police all said to now be involved in searching for survivors.
Authorities from neighbouring France are also reportedly said to have joined in on the search, with the country’s navy and air ambulance having now allegedly taking part in the operation.
With temperatures in the Channel having dropped as low as just one degree Celsius (33.8°F) on Wednesday morning, the current cold snap that has recently hit Britain means that the survival prospects for any migrant unlucky enough to have fallen into the freezing waters of the English Channel have been greatly diminished.
Breitbart London has approached the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s HM Coast Guard for comment.
This, unfortunately, is not the first time a clandestine migrant boat has capsized in the English Channel. A similar incident of a migrant vessel capsizing in the Channel during the depths of winter saw 31 people die, eventually prompting the UK government to vow to do more to prevent crossings.
However, while officials within the Tory party government have repeatedly committed themselves to address the ongoing migrant crisis, little has actually been done to actually clamp down on the extremely dangerous crossings.
As a result, human traffickers continue to make considerable amounts of money shuttling tens of thousands of people into Britain using small boats every single year, often with little consideration for the safety of those they are transporting.
Britain even struggles to keep track of many of its new arrivals once they land in the country, with authorities reportedly even losing track of migrants in their care who are thought to be children.