Deadliest Channel crossing incident a ‘terrible human tragedy'

Independent

03-03-2025

An inquiry into the deadliest Channel crossing on record has heard that, despite repeated distress calls from migrants on board a sinking boat to UK authorities, 'no-one came to their rescue'.
An independent probe, led by Sir Ross Cranston, has vowed to find out the truth of what happened when dozens of people died as an inflatable boat capsized while attempting the journey to the UK on November 24 2021.
In the opening statement from the Cranston Inquiry's counsel, Rory Phillips KC said one of the important questions that is raised from that night is how passengers were left in the water more than 12 hours after distress calls were made to the UK authorities.
The names of 26 people confirmed to have died and four people missing were read out on Monday, and another person whose body was found but identity has not been confirmed.
The inquiry heard it cannot be certain how many people were on board the boat that night, but the French authorities believe it was 33 people, including 13 women and eight children.
There may have also been other small children who do not appear on the list of the missing, the inquiry said.
Mr Phillips said that night was, above all, a 'terrible human tragedy'.
Sonali Naik KC, representing the families of the victims and survivors, said that evidence from before the tragedy shows it was 'entirely predictable' that a catastrophic event involving mass casualties in the English Channel would occur, and that it was 'well recognised' authorities were 'overwhelmed' and 'ill-equipped' to respond.
She added the range of systemic and operational themes to be explored in the inquiry leads to the 'crushing conclusion that this tragedy was also preventable'.
The inquiry heard how the boat left the French coast shortly after 10pm and around three hours into the journey it became 'swamped'.
A distress call was first received by the UK authorities at around 1.30am – made by a 16-year-old Iraqi Kurdish boy, Mubin Rizghar Hussein, known to be one of the victims, who told the operator 'everything was finished' in the 'harrowing' call.
He called again at 2.30am and said they would all die, and he was told to stop calling and help was on the way.
The Border Force cutter boat Valiant was operating search and rescues in UK waters that night, but it did not leave until 2.22am and took another hour to get to the last location known for the boat, referred to as incident 'Charlie'.
The inquiry heard that 367 people were rescued by Border Force in the Channel that night, which was described by the agency as 'not a busy night' compared to other nights during the period.
A total of 757 people arrived in the UK after crossing by small boat on November 24.
The Valiant did not find 'Charlie' in its last location, and it was mistakenly recorded as another boat it attended called 'Lima' around 10 minutes later, despite the fact it 'bore no resemblance' to the sinking incident with men, women and children on board.
A helicopter operating that night also did not find the boat, and was stood down.
'No-one in the UK was looking for Charlie, no-one came to their rescue,' Mr Phillips said.
'At the time when the Valiant was cleared from incident Charlie, when she returned to Dover, and when the helicopter returned to base, the incident was marked as resolved and closed, all those times human beings who had been on board the sinking small boat were in the water and the vast majority were drowning.'
Mr Phillips said one of the two survivors, Issa Mohamed Omar, told the inquiry when the sun rose he saw 15 people clinging to the sunken boat, and he recalled a mother screaming searching for her children.
Mr Phillips said the horror of what he saw was 'unimaginable' and he began swimming for many hours.
At around 12.30pm on November 24, a French fishing boat found the first bodies floating in the water, the inquiry heard.
'It is said one of the victims died just half an hour before rescue,' Mr Phillips said.
'The question if loss of life was avoidable is not an academic one in this case.'
A report by cold water expert Professor Michael Tipton concluded that while some of those on board may have drowned immediately, it is likely the majority of victims died over a long period, by sunrise at 7am and between sunrise and the rescue in the afternoon the next day.
He said most drowned when they could no longer hold onto the wreckage, or through loss of consciousness or cardiac arrest due to hypothermia after being in the 13C waters.
James Maxwell-Scott KC, representing the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), said the French coastguard had been aware of small boat activity from around 9pm on November 23, but delayed sharing tracker information until 12.56am on November 24.
'It is clear that had the French authorities acted differently events would have unfolded in a different way,' he said.
Mr Maxwell-Scott added that the UK Coastguard believed 'Charlie' had been found and there was no new information for a change of mind.
'It's been suggested that this tragedy was preventable at the outset of the evidence, I would urge you to treat that proposition with caution, not to be swayed by hindsight,' he said.
'At sea, safety is never guaranteed, nor is rescue.'
The inquiry heard about the known concerns over UK coastguard capacity before the incident, including chronic under-staffing issues.
The majority of small boat rescues that month had been undertaken by Border Force vessels, which were not designed for search and rescue, and it was acknowledged the situation was 'critical' and 'unsustainable' without an increase in asset numbers.
Alongside resources, the inquiry will question why it took two hours for Border Force's Valiant to reach Charlie's last known location, and why it was recorded in error as another boat picked up in the Channel.
Another question will be why the vessel was considered sufficient to attend the incident in the first place when its survivor capacity on board was not enough for all of the known incidents in the Channel that night, and so why the RNLI was not called.
The inquiry comes as a report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) published in November 2023 stated that the UK's search and rescue response was hampered by the lack of a dedicated aircraft carrying out aerial surveillance.
Mr Phillips said that aside from the inquiry's probe, a significant amount of work has been done to prevent similar incidents, including steps towards updating the standard operating procedure such as the list of information to ask people calling in distress.
It was flagged by Mr Phillips in his opening statement of the 'futility' of operators asking callers from incident Charlie 'where are you?' 17 times as 'striking', as it was clear they could not answer beyond that they were in UK waters.
That call at 3.11am may be the last received from the incident, and Mr Phillips said there was no attempt to obtain an updated position from the caller.
From evidence obtained in the inquiry the boat may have been sinking within 15 minutes of the last call, Mr Phillips added.
The inquiry hearings continue until March 27.