Britain’s soft-touch rules for illegal migrants are to blame for latest English Channel tragedy, says France, as it emerges migrants REFUSED chance to be rescued minutes before they died

Britain’s soft-touch rules for illegal migrants are to blame for the latest English Channel small boat disaster, according to France’s Interior Minister.

Gerald Darmanin spoke out after 12 people including six children and a pregnant woman died when the dinghy they were in ripped in two on Tuesday morning.

But it has now emerged that the migrants who lost their lives turned down the chance to be rescued just minutes before disaster struck.

Investigators have revealed that the Abeille Normandie – the Normandy Bee rescue vessel – took 15 people off the stricken boat soon after Mayday calls were put out by some on board. 

‘Fifteen people got on to the Abeille Normandie, saying they wanted to be rescued as soon as possible,’ said an investigating source.

France’s Minister of the Interior and Overseas, Gerald Darmanin (second right) speaks with mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frederic Cuvillier (centre) as they arrive on a rescue site following the sinking of a migrant boat attempting to cross the English Channel

Firefighters handle the bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the Channel to England in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France on September 3

‘The remaining 65 continued on their voyage, and capsized soon afterwards,’ he added. 

A manslaughter investigation has since been opened, as judicial police try to find the people smugglers who provided their faulty dinghy, which split in two. 

Judicial police supported by gendarmes are actively searching for the smugglers, who are thought to have charged those on board the equivalent of £1000-a-head for a place on the boat, which was just 26ft long.

It has also emerged that the dinghy had been modified to try to make it go faster in the sea.

Rigid supports were taken out of the bottom of the overcrowded boat, and this made it particularly unstable, says the report.

Axel Baheu, the skipper of the French trawler Murex, was among the first to try and rescue people from the Channel.

Describing the first person pulled out of the sea, Mr Baheu told Le Monde: ‘He was already cold, his eyes were open and foam was coming out of his mouth, he had no pulse.’

Mr Baheu heard a phone ringing, saying: ‘It was probably someone calling to see if he was okay or not.’

While attacking the people smugglers who provided the faulty boat, Mr Darmanin said in his statement the UK was a place ‘where you can work without papers and where you have little chance of being expelled.’

This means that people from all over the world try to get to the country illegally, so as to earn money without official papers.

During a visit to emergency workers in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Tuesday evening, Mr Darmanin said the latest victims were ‘people from the Horn of Africa,’.

Only eight of the 80-odd people, most of them Africans from Eritrea, had life jackets, and the boat was struggling in choppy seas 

These Eritreans risked the notoriously perilous English Channel crossing ‘to join family, to work there sometimes in conditions that are not acceptable in France,’ said Mr Darmanin. 

Blasting Britain further, he claimed: ‘These people want to go to Great Britain, and it is not the tens of millions of euros that we negotiate each year with our British friends and who only pay a third of what we spend, that will put an end to illegal departures.’

Rather than France continuing to pour millions into trying to secure its border with Britain, Mr Darmanin said he wanted to ‘re-establish a traditional migration relationship with our friend and neighbour, the United Kingdom’.

He said the best way to do this was ‘through a migration treaty between Great Britain and the European Union’.

The latest cross-Channel disaster took place close to the French town of Wimereux, where the local Mayor has frequently argued that such tragedies are all the fault of the British.

Firefighters and Civil Protection agents stand next to bags containing the bodies of migrants

Emergency services have been deployed to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais after a migrant boat capsized

Jean-Luc Dubaele said in April: ‘Five dead in January, five dead in April. What are we waiting for?

‘Why do the English welcome them? Why do they absolutely want to travel to England? These are the questions that need to be asked.’

He said: ‘It is Britain that is responsible for the boats setting off across the English Channel and the deaths that occur in the sea.

‘The English pay us to stop the boats setting off but they look after the migrants when they arrive on their shores.

‘The English give them accommodation, food, a bank account, and let them work without regulation.

‘It is the English who are responsible for every boat that sails across the Channel to England.

‘This has been going on for more than 20 years – migrants crossing to England illegally.

‘I have been mayor for four years and I’ve watched as more and more boats leave from these shores and more people die in the sea.’  

Mr Dubaele has frequently described Britain as an ‘immigrant El Dorado’, saying easy access to benefits, and a chance to work in the UK’s black economy, attracted thousands from around the world.

The stark comments came after a pregnant woman and six children were among 12 people who tragically lost their lives after a boat capsized in the English Channel yesterday.

Frédéric Cuvillier, mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer where casualties were being treated, told the BBC that a pregnant woman was among those who perished after the overcrowded inflatable vessel ‘ripped open’ off the coast of France.

Guirec Le Bras, regional prosecutor, said during a news conference that ten women were among the 12 reported to have died – which also included six minors.

He added that those killed were ‘primarily of Eritrean origin’, but said officials have not yet ‘consolidated’ enough information to provide further details.

Many of the passengers didn’t have life preservers, officials said, with one calling it the deadliest migrant accident in the channel this year. 

Some 70 people on board ended up in the water when the bottom of the boat, measuring just seven metres long, ‘ripped open’.

Olivier Barbarin, chief of Le Portel, near Boulogne-sur-Mer where casualties were being treated, said: ‘Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat ripped open.’

‘If people don’t know how to swim in the agitated waters… it can go very quickly.’ 

Mr Barbarin said the boat had set off from the coast at Ambleteuse, around nine miles further north, at around 7am yesterday.

‘The hull gave way because of the large number of people. There were very few ships around,’ he said.

A state-chartered vessel, the Minck, had seen the boat in difficulty and went to its rescue said Lieutenant Etienne Baggio, a French coastal official.

He added that search operations, which meant the beach was closed to allow helicopters to land, were still under way last night.

The terrified migrants on board the dingy were also said to have tried to raise the alarm by putting out mayday calls using their mobile phones.

It is one of the deadliest incidents since 27 died after a dinghy sank while heading for the UK in November 2021.

According to the French coastguard, there have been at least 19 deaths in the Channel in 2024 before yesterday. But the International Organisation for Migration estimates 226 people including 35 children are either missing or have died since January. 

Rescue workers in helicopters and boats were deployed close to Le Portel, a town of around 9,000, shortly after 11.30am yesterday morning, assisted by local fishermen. 

The tragic incident comes after French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to work closer together to dismantle migrant smuggling routes last week

By early evening, Mr Darmanin reported 51 people had been ‘saved’.

The French coast guard initially reported 10 people were in critical condition following the sinking. French officials revised this down to two by early evening. 

The UK Coastguard yesterday said it has not been involved in the rescue operation.

A spokesperson said: ‘HM Coastguard received a report of a small boat in difficulty in the English Channel, in French waters north of Boulogne, at about 6.50am on 3 September.

‘The response was coordinated by French authorities. Assistance offered by HM Coastguard was not required.’

The scale of the tragedy prompted Mr Darmanin to call for better relations with the UK to negotiate a ‘migration treaty between the UK and the European Union’.

He said: ‘The people who go now [are] people from the core of Africa who want to go to the UK and they want to join their families and they actually work in conditions that would not be accepted [in] France. 

‘And so we really do need to work together to stop these things happening.’

The disaster will pile pressure on the Labour Government to take urgent action to stop the illegal crossings. 

The deaths of at least 12 migrants in the English Channel is ‘horrifying’ and ‘deeply tragic,’ British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, following the tragedy. 

‘What has happened off the coast at Le Portel is a horrifying and deeply tragic incident, and our hearts go out to the loved ones of all those who have lost their lives, and all those who have been seriously injured,’ she added.

‘I am in touch with my counterpart in France, Gérald Darmanin, and am being kept updated on the situation.

‘We pay tribute to the French coastguard and emergency services who undoubtedly saved many lives, but sadly could not save everyone. We will await the results of the French investigation into how this particular incident unfolded.

‘The gangs behind this appalling and callous trade in human lives have been cramming more and more people onto increasingly unseaworthy dinghies, and sending them out into the Channel even in very poor weather. 

‘They do not care about anything but the profits they make, and that is why – as well as mourning the awful loss of life – the work to dismantle these dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs and to strengthen border security is so vital and must proceed apace.

‘All government services are mobilised to find the missing and take care of the victims. I go to the elected officials and the emergency services.’ 

Border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle admitted yesterday that there was a ‘worrying trend that boats are being filled with many more people’.

‘They’re always dangerous, this is a very, very busy shipping lane, but the danger and the risk seems to be rising.’

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly called on the Government to bring back the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme, which was aimed at convincing migrants they would not be allowed to remain in the UK.

He said yesterday: ‘This is tragic and it cannot continue. It is not enough to talk about “smashing the gangs” when the real-life consequences are so serious. Labour must re-establish the deterrent to stop vulnerable people being exploited and secure our border.’

Former Director General of Border Force Tony Smith said a deterrent, either in the form of a returns agreement or third-party scheme such as Rwanda, was necessary to put people off trying to cross and so break the gangs’ business model. 

Mr Smith told the Mail: ‘Unless it is demonstrated that they won’t be allowed to stay, people will think they might as well take the risk.’

He said that ‘smashing the gangs’ will never be enough on its own because people-smuggling is so lucrative, new criminals will always want to take the place of those who are arrested.’

Reacting to the deaths in the Channel on Tuesday, Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said: ‘The number of deaths in the Channel this year has been shockingly high.

‘It is a devastating trend that shows the urgent need for a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach to reduce dangerous Channel crossings.

‘Enforcement alone is not the solution. Heightened security and policing measures on the French coast have led to increasingly perilous crossings, launching from more dangerous locations and in flimsy, overcrowded vessels.

‘In addition to taking action against the criminal gangs themselves, the Government must develop a plan to improve and expand safe routes for those seeking safety.’

The last deaths reported in the Channel took place on August 11 – when two others perished making the treacherous journey.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to work closer together to dismantle migrant smuggling routes last week. 

The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, making the crossing on small boats dangerous.

Earlier on Tuesday, Home Office figures confirmed that 351 migrants had successfully made the crossing into Britain yesterday aboard six dinghies.

These arrivals take the total number of arrivals in 2024 to 21,403 people in 409 boats.