Baby among 84 migrants rescued after boat capsizes in Channel
Coastguard helicopters and lifeboats scrambled to help British border officers rescue the group from the water and bring them ashore in Kent.
A six-month-old baby was among a group of more than 80 migrants pulled from the water after their boat capsized while crossing the Channel.
A coastguard helicopter joined the search-and-rescue operation on Thursday. No deaths or serious injuries were reported. The coastguard confirmed the search had ended with “all people accounted for and back on land”.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution said lifeboats from Dover and Walmer attended the scene.
The six-month-old was among three children understood to have fallen into the water after the small boat got into difficulty when its engine failed.
Witnesses said the boat had started to turn back towards France before it flipped, throwing 84 people into the sea. The boat was said to be significantly over capacity, with the number of passengers higher than for the average vessel crossing the Channel, which is 50 to 60. The migrants were said to have been rescued by French navy vessel Abalone and UK Border Force vessel Taku.
The boat was among several that attempted the crossing on Thursday morning when smugglers took advantage of calm conditions. At least one boat was said to have been intercepted by the French.
More than 125,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via the Channel in the past six-and-a-half years. Since the government struck a deal two years ago to send migrants to Rwanda – a scheme that has since stalled amid legal challenges – more than 80,000 people have made the journey.
The tally of crossings since Rishi Sunak, who has pledged to “stop the boats”, became prime minister is edging closer to 50,000, while the number arriving since the general election was called is nearing 1,000.
The Home Office said 34 people made the journey in one boat on Wednesday, taking the provisional total number of crossings for the year so far to 10,779.
This is up 42 per cent on the number recorded this time last year, when 7610 had crossed.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the FDA, the civil service union, said civil servants would be required to comply with any interim injunction from the European Court of Human Rights preventing migrants being removed to Rwanda.
The High Court began hearing the FDA’s legal case against the Rwanda policy on Thursday, which could add further delays to the policy.
Flights have already been postponed until after the election and will take off only if Sunak is returned as prime minister. The government admitted in legal documents last week that the first flights would not depart until July 24 at the earliest.
The FDA argued in court that any demand for civil servants to ignore an interim injunction from the Strasbourg court – known as a Rule 39 order – would breach the civil service code, which requires officials to abide by international law. It is challenging government guidance stating that civil servants must deliver a ministerial decision to ignore a Rule 39 order.
However, Sir James Eadie KC, for the government, told the High Court that the FDA’s case on the meaning of the civil service code is “constitutionally untenable”. He said that decisions on whether to comply with “unincorporated international treaty obligations” were for ministers.
The Times
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