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Five people - three men, a woman and a child - have died while attempting to cross the sea from France to Britain this morning.

The French coastguard said the small boat was overloaded and carrying 110 people when the incident happened at about 5am on Tuesday

The news came just hours after the UK Parliament passed its Rwanda bill, which aims to deter small boat crossings. Here's more:

• Home Secretary James Cleverly called it a "tragedy" - and said the government was "doing everything we can to end this trade"
• Elsewhere along the French coast, the BBC watched as groups of migrants tried to board small boats on Tuesday morning
• It came as government politicians welcomed the "landmark" Rwanda legislation that passed last night after the Lords dropped their objections and backed down
• Rishi Sunak said the bill marked a “fundamental change in the global equation on migration" and that the focus now is to "get flights off the ground"
• Rights groups including the Refugee Council have criticised the government's plan - as well as bodies including the UN and Council of Europe who have urged the UK to have a rethink

The Refugee Council says the deaths in the Channel in morning are "devastating", adding that they are "all the more tragic" as they happened just hours after the Rwanda legislation was passed in Parliament.

The UK-based organisation's boss Enver Solomon says the deaths are "another devastating human tragedy that could and should have been avoided".

He criticises the Rwanda Bill as "hostile, headline-grabbing legislation", and says that the UK should instead seek "safe routes for those fleeing conflict and persecution, including more options for family reunion, refugee visas, and cooperation with our European neighbours".

The only "sustainable" way to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK is for the government to "reduce the need for desperate people to take desperate actions", Solomon says.

"We don't need costly and unworkable laws - we need a fair and humane process that upholds the right to asylum, ensuring refugees are treated with dignity and respect."

Home Secretary James Cleverly has responded to this morning's news that five people, including a child, have died attempting to cross the Channel.

In a post on X, Mr Cleverly said: "These tragedies have to stop."

"This government is doing everything we can to end this trade, stop the boats and ultimately break the business model of the evil people smuggling gangs, so they no longer put lives at risk" he added.

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has also reacted on X, describing the incident this morning as "yet another tragedy", and called on the EU to "grant member states legal cover to seize these unseaworthy boats that are costing precious lives".

The BBC's Home Affairs correspondent, Tom Symonds, was on a beach near Calais this morning and watched as migrants set off from France for the UK.

The boats pictured are not thought to be related to the incident in the channel earlier, at about 5am, in which five people died.

Simon Jones
Reporting from Dover

Standing on the famous White Cliffs of Dover this morning, the sea looks very calm and France is clear in the distance.

It’s set to be another busy day in the Channel for crossings. And it’s already been a tragic one, with more deaths at sea.

Ministers will say this underlines the need to stop people risking their lives in the world’s busiest shipping lane.

More than 6,000 migrants have already made the journey so far this year - that’s a rise of around a quarter on the same period last year.

The government puts that down to the weather, the fact the smugglers are using bigger boats and packing more and more people onto them, and the increasing violence the French police are facing trying to prevent the boats from launching.

The government knows though it will be judged on numbers - particularly when any flights to Rwanda do take off.

The French coastguard has now confirmed that five people have died attempting to cross the Channel.

The five included three men, a woman and a child, they said.

"Around 5am this morning, a small boat (with more than 110 people) set sail from a beach (Wimereux)," they said.

"After an initial stranding on a sandbank, the boat set out to sea again. A crowd movement apparently occurred in the overloaded boat, causing several victims."

The announcement follows earlier reports from local newspaper La Voix du Nord and AFP news agency. French media say the child was a four-year-old girl.

Two top UN officials are calling on the UK to reverse its plan to move asylum seekers to Rwanda.

In a joint statement, two UN high commissioner, Filippo Grandi and Volker Turk, say the policy will have a harmful impact on refugee protection and human rights around the world.

Grandi says that protecting asylum seekers requires all countries uphold their obligations. But the UK's arrangement "seeks to shift responsibility for refugee protection, undermining international cooperation and setting a worrying global precedent", he says in the statement.

Meanwhile Turk says: "It is critical to the protection of the human rights and dignity of refugees and migrants seeking protection that all removals from the UK are carried out after assessing their specific individual circumstances in strict compliance with international human rights and refugee law".

Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from Gravelines, Calais

This is the second time I've witnessed the French police operation on the Calais coast.

This morning, visibly angry officers stopped us from approaching the inflatable boat at the water's edge.

They also stopped another group of migrants from trying to get into the water.

But they made no attempt to stop this boat from leaving. We know that in general they try to stab the boats in shallow water to deflate them and prevent them from leaving.

However, it is unlikely this boat would have made it across the Channel. A large French military or coastguard vessel was blocking the way, tracking backwards and forwards in a slow motion game of cat and mouse.

The migrant boat we saw is still in the water close to the shore, and a small group of people, including the police are watching from the beach.

There are also police patrols along the coast, and a spotter plane has been circling in the air.

At least five people have died attempting to cross the Channel from an area near the town of Wimereux, France, local newspaper La Voix du Nord is reporting.

The French coastguard has confirmed that there was a failed attempt to cross the Channel and that police were operating at a beach following the incident on Tuesday morning, Reuters reports.

The coastguard spokesperson said they could not say how many people were involved but that there were several "lifeless bodies". The coastguard said it was still operating at sea.

AFP news agency is also reporting that five people have died, citing a French police source.

Image source, EPA

The government's minister for illegal migration, Michael Tomlinson, has just been asked whether the Rwanda bill will actually be a deterrent - as new groups of migrants have been trying to cross the Channel from Calais this morning.

"The act is not yet in force, he says. "We need to get the flights off the ground, and that's when we will see the deterrent effect kick in".

He gives the example of the UK's deal with Albania, which was struck in December 2022 and aims to send Albanian asylum seekers on regular flights. Since the flights started, he says "the numbers of Albanians crossing the channel in boats are down".

When asked how the government plans to process all of the applications, in light of court backlogs, he told BBC Breakfast that 200 case workers will receive the final parts of their training this week and then “decisions will need to be made”.

Mr Tomlinson said it is “probably inevitable that there are going to be challenges".

Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from France

I'm on a beach north of Calais, where migrants have been spotted this morning.

We watched as a small boat appeared in the water, closely tracked by a naval vessel which appeared to be blocking its way across the channel.

Next, from dunes alongside the beach, a large group of around 40 migrants appeared, and started running towards the boat, which appeared to turn back inland to meet them.

Then the police appeared, who we had already seen on the beach. As the migrants appeared, they walked briskly towards them, and tried to stop them climbing on board the boat. They were armed with CS gas and in the past have tried to stop the boats being used by slashing them with knives.

Next the migrants on the beach tried to climb on board the boat and start a small outboard motor. We counted 67 people, filling every inch of the black rubber vessel.

Others were left behind on the beach. They included children and a man on crutches.

Immigration lawyer Nicholas Hughes - whose firm represents dozens of clients that were affected by the flight attempts back in 2022 - has just been speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He says he believes it's "very likely" that those migrants will "receive notice this time around".

Asked whether the work done by his team is prolonging people trafficking, the lawyer replies: “There is absolutely nothing that we have seen, in any reporting, in any articles throughout the Rwanda litigation that I was a part of in the Supreme Court, that shows this policy is deterrent.

“If this is a flagship policy to stop the boats, as Mr Sunak claims it is, there is no evidence that it is doing so."

Chris Mason
Political editor

Note how the prime minister is framing this in the widest context.

It is, he claims, "a fundamental change in the global equation on migration".

He is seeking to set this UK argument - as long-winded and controversial as it has been and continues to be - against a generational and geographical backdrop.

The idea that the UK’s challenge isn’t unique, but shared by similar countries wrestling with the pressures of migration.

What we have had over the last 24 hours is Rishi Sunak publicly assembling the architecture of action: the additional detention spaces, the extra caseworkers, more capacity for the courts to deal with the issue.

But in the end all that really matters is how quickly they can put some asylum seekers on flights - and, crucially, how much of a deterrent they prove to be to those contemplating getting in a small boat over the English Channel.

Reform UK leader Richard Tice has been a vocal opponent of the government’s Rwanda plan.

Tice told BBC Breakfast just now that the plan “will not be what the government wants, which is a deterrent”.

He suggested that people could continue to travel to the UK as they will "make the calculation" that lawyers would represent them and that the “chance” would be worth taking because the “UK is the most generous place for asylum seekers”.

"The point is you take them back to where they came from, which is the safe country of France", Tice added. He claimed that increasing policing of the waters "would be so much cheaper than what the government's doing".

Barbara Plett Usher
Africa correspondent, reporting from Kigali

We’ve been told the Rwandan government is very much ready to receive at least that first plane load.

There are a number of hostels in Kigali that are prepared to receive them. I've been at one of them. it has been ready and waiting, I am told, since 14 June 2022. Their beds are all made up. The kitchen is staffed. There are some beautiful grounds here. A tent with tables and desks where the asylum applications will be processed.

Rwanda is training new immigration officials and working to change the law to enable those measures that were agreed with the UK, such as if asylum applications are rejected allowing those people to stay in the country – one of the chief concerns of the Supreme Court.

Kigali says they have been on standby for the last two years.

Simon Jones
BBC News reporter, Dover

Here in Dover, many people remain sceptical about whether flights to Rwanda really will stop the boats.

Since the crossings began in earnest around five years ago, there have been several prime ministers, home secretaries and immigration ministers, all of whom have promised to get a grip of the issue.

There was talk of turning boats back at sea - that was considered to be too dangerous.

The military was brought in to patrol the Channel - but the Ministry of Defence was accused of being little more than a taxi service for migrants. At one point, there was even talk of using a wave machine at sea.

The government has described the passing of the Rwanda bill as a landmark moment. People here are calling it a moment of truth.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has released a statement this morning, saying the passage of the "landmark" bill represents "not just a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration".

He says that the bill was introduced to "deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them", adding that it will make it clear that “if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay”.

“Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives,” he says.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

Image source, EPA

The government's Rwanda bill - to send UK asylum seekers to be processed in Africa - has finally been approved by Parliament, after two years of legal battles and political wrangling. So how soon is a plane bound for Kigali likely to take off?

Let's just say the engines on the government's planes will be staying silent today.

While the bill has now passed through Parliament, the quickest a flight can take off is - technically speaking - 12 days after the King has given royal assent, which then formally turns the bill into law.

In practice, the date of the first flight is likely to be later than that - according to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 10 to 12 weeks, meaning late June or early July.

"That is later than we wanted," Mr Sunak said on Monday, admitting the government would miss its own Spring deadline for a flight, "but we have always been clear that processing will take time."

More here

Francesca Gillett
Live reporter

So there we have it, after months of wrangling, Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill will finally become law.

A lengthy wrestle between the Commons and House of Lords ended just after midnight and the legislation was passed, after peers sent the bill back to MPs five times.

If you are (just like some of us) waking up and missed some of last night's action, stick with us as we bring you a recap and the latest reaction. You can also read our write-up here.

Sunak has said flights to Rwanda will take off within 10 to 12 weeks, missing his original spring target. But the scheme could still be held up by challenges in the courts.