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The Guardian
03-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Channel migrant dinghy tragedy ‘entirely predictable', inquiry hears
An inquiry into the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel has heard that it was 'entirely predictable' that a catastrophic event involving mass casualties would occur. On Monday the Cranston inquiry began hearing evidence into the drownings of at least 27 people on 24 November 2021 in the narrow stretch of water separating the UK from France. The inquiry heard that the boat, thought to be carrying 33 people, including 13 women and eight children, was 'wholly unsuitable'. Along with the 27 confirmed dead, four people remain missing, while two survived. The dinghy, named Charlie by rescue services, was one of 209 boats that made the crossing in November 2021, the highest number recorded in a single month. Although in the years following the mass drowning at least 128 more migrants have lost their lives in the Channel, according to the UN's International Organisation for Migration, the November 2021 incident remains the largest single loss of life since migrant crossings of the Channel in small boats began in 2018. The inquiry has been told about a litany of failings, including poor communication and understaffing, at the Dover coastguard on the night and a failure of Home Office intelligence sharing relating to the stricken dinghy. It emerged that Charlie was confused by authorities with another dinghy named Lima, which 35 people were successfully rescued from. Rory Phillips KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: 'No one in the UK was looking for Charlie and no one came to their rescue.' Instead 'incident Charlie' was marked as resolved and closed. Prior to the incident the Maritime and Coastguard Agency had flagged on its corporate risk register that it may become overwhelmed, resulting in loss of life. A request for more staff did not bear fruit, the inquiry heard. The boat left the French coast around 10pm on the night of 23 November 2021. About three hours later it started taking in water. The passengers began making panicked calls. In what is described as a 'harrowing' call at around 1.30am, 16-year old Iraqi Kurd Mubin Rizghar Hussein told the coastguard that everyone was in the water and 'everything will be finished'. At 2.30am he made another desperate call once again raising the alarm. He said the passengers were finished and would die. He was asked by the coastguard to stop calling. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion By 3.06am the boat was sinking and the last distress call was made at 3.11am. Sonali Naik KC, counsel for survivor Issa Mohamed Omar and some of the bereaved relatives, told the inquiry that due to the multiple failings on the night of the mass drowning, including poor communication and understaffing, the entirely predictable, catastrophic event occurred. Omar said he felt part of the reason he survived was to be a voice for those who lost their lives. Naik said that as early as September 2020 a lack of resources to rescue migrants in dinghies in distress had been flagged. 'It was only a matter of time before authorities would have to deal with so called 'non-survivors',' she said. The inquiry continues.
The National
03-03-2025
- Politics
- The National
Teenager made harrowing call for rescue in deadliest English Channel crossing tragedy
An Iraqi-Kurdish boy phoned coastguards to warn that everyone on board a small boat crossing the English Channel would die as it began to sink, an inquiry into the tragedy was told on Monday. Mubin Rizghar Hussein, 16, known to be one of the victims, made the harrowing call as the flimsy boat carrying more than two dozen migrants from northern France towards the UK took on water in the early hours. His account of what happened formed part of the opening of the Cranston Inquiry into what has been the largest single loss of life since migrants began crossing the Channel in small boats in 2018. The names of the 26 people confirmed dead and the four who remain missing were read out on Monday. Another body was found but their identity has not been confirmed. The inquiry heard no one can be certain how many people were on board the boat on the night of November 24, 2021 but French authorities believe it was 33, including 13 women and eight children. As the inquiry opened, No 10 Downing Street insisted the British government was taking action to curb similar Channel crossings, addressing the 'chaos' in the asylum system and stepping up returns of people with no legal right to be in the UK, but added there are 'no quick fixes' to the global problem of illegal migration. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We're taking the measures that will ultimately deter and smash people-smuggling gangs that have been plying this illegal trade. We're extending a deal with France to step up our work with the French to further smash the gangs and stop the small boat crossings.' Figures published on Monday indicated that 592 migrants arrived on March 2 in 11 boats, the highest number of arrivals on a single day so far this year. It takes the total number of illegal cross-Channel arrivals this year to 2,716, which is 20 per cent higher than at the same point last year. The inquiry, chaired by former judge and academic Sir Ross Cranston, will look at what happened on the night in question and what lessons can be learnt from the search-and-rescue operation. Rory Phillips KC, counsel to the inquiry, said one of two known survivors, Issa Mohamed Omar, saw 15 people clinging to the overturned boat when the sun rose, and he recalled a mother screaming, searching for her lost children. Mr Phillips said the horror of what Mr Omar had seen was 'unimaginable' and he set off swimming for hours. A French fishing boat found the first bodies floating in the water shortly after midday, 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 from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, released in 2023, found that the rescue response was hindered by confusion, lack of resources and poor communication between the UK and France. Mr Phillips said the migrants had gathered in the dark on a beach near Dunkirk after trekking for about two hours. 'They had left their home countries for a variety of different reasons but were united in their desperation to reach the United Kingdom,' he said. The migrants 'paid thousands of pounds' to criminal gangs 'who promised them safe passage' but 'instead they were about to embark on a harrowing journey, with more than 30 people crammed into a boat with a safe capacity for far fewer than that'. By about 10pm the boat had been fully inflated and dragged into the water on the French coast, while the people smugglers themselves remained on the beach. The women and children were directed to sit on the floor of the boat, while the men perched on the inflated sides. Those on board were wearing what the smugglers called a life jacket but these were merely 'vests stuffed with cotton or other fabric and with strips of reflective material on the sides'. Three hours into the journey 'the boat began to take on a significant amount of water and became swamped' and those on board tried frantically to bail out water, 'as panicked calls were made for help' at about 1.30am. The incident was given the reference "Charlie". The French transferred a 'harrowing call' from Mr Hussein to the UK Coastguard and spoke for 20 minutes, during which time he was able to give co-ordinates from his phone. 'Around 2.30am, the 16 year old made another desperate plea for help,' said Mr Phillips. 'He said to the coastguard that the passengers were finished and that they would all die.' He was told help was on its way and to stop calling. A Border Force vessel, the Valiant, was sent out but it was not until shortly before 3.30am that it arrived at the boat's last known location, by which time it had drifted away. A helicopter operating that night also failed to find the boat and was stood down. 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." He said an expert who submitted evidence to the inquiry believed most of the migrants who survived the swamping of the boat and entering the water had still been alive at this point. 'As the hours passed and no help arrived, one by one, the passengers succumbed to exhaustion and hypothermia," he said. "Dawn came around 7am one of the survivors had told the inquiry that when the sun rose over the water, there were about 15 people still clinging to the remains of the boat. 'The bodies of their fellow passengers were floating around them. He recalled a mother screaming as she searched for her children.' The inquiry comes as a report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch published in November 2023 said the UK's search-and-rescue response was hampered by the lack of a dedicated aircraft carrying out aerial surveillance.
