Image source, Getty Images

The UN's Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is "deeply shocked and saddened" by the deaths of at least 27 people in the Channel yesterday.

In a statement, external, the agency says all states must "commit to placing human life, rights and dignity at the centre and forefront of discussions in trying to find solutions".

It adds that many people on the move come from areas of conflict, and that those "in need of international protection must be able to access it, in a fair and efficient manner".

The UN agency has warned for some time that the closing off of legal routes to apply for asylum - for example at embassies - would lead those fleeing persecution to seek dangerous and illegal ways to get to safer countries.

"This is the largest loss of life recorded in this seaway in recent times – and one that could have been avoided," the statement said.

Reality Check

We reported in September that the Home Office wanted to be able to turn around boats in the Channel and send them back to France - an act known as push-back.

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she “had not ruled anything out” and gave the example of “Greece in terms of push-backs”, adding that the Greeks use the military including special forces as well as the coastguard to achieve this.

There have been no reports yet of the tactic being used in the Channel.

A House of Commons Library briefing, external on the legality of push-backs said that “any return of a vessel to a state’s territorial waters would require that state’s consent".

Responses so far from France, including a tweet from the French interior minister, external do not suggest that would be forthcoming.

The Home Office has not yet responded to a request for an update on its plans for push-backs.

Image source, EPA

Possible government plans for turning back boats with people trying to reach the UK are "against international law and morally reprehensible", one of the largest unions representing UK Border Force staff has said.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Home Secretary Priti Patel confirmed she had already approved tactics including "boat turnarounds for Border Force to deploy".

And earlier today, immigration minister Kevin Foster also refused to rule out the move - telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme any maritime tactics could be "deployed appropriately" if commanders "on the ground" deemed them to be safe.

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) Mark Serwotka says the deaths are an "absolute tragedy" and they highlight the safety of migrants and Border Force staff should be "paramount".

"It is shocking that the government is suggesting Border Force staff turn boats back, which will clearly be against international law and morally reprehensible."

He adds PCS is "reviewing all its options", including taking out a judicial review against the government's plans and a "possible industrial response".

Harry Farley
Religion reporter, BBC News

Image source, Diocese of Canterbury

The Bishop of Dover says she feels a “deep inner rage” at the deaths of people trying to cross the English Channel.

The Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin says the issue is an international crisis everyone must take responsibility for.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, she urges politicians to stop “the political football that we are playing with people’s lives”.

“I am feeling a deep inner rage – a really deep inner rage that the world continues to allow this to happen, couched with political rhetoric as to whose fault it is.

“This is all our fault. We must all take responsibility. This is not something that should be left to one country, or two countries, and so we throw blame back and forwards.

“This is an international crisis."

She says the government should focus on the issues that cause people to flee their home countries, such as war and natural disasters.

Official figures show, external the largest groups of migrants by nationality are from countries that are either unstable, very poor or known to have serious human rights abuses:

• Iranians make up 29% of all those arriving
• Iraqi 18%
• Syrians 9%
• Sudanese 8%
• Eritreans 7%

Image source, PA Media

People gathering on the northern coast of France hoping to reach the UK by whatever means necessary are still making the journey in record numbers, despite the recent tragedy.

But why are they risking their lives to cross the Channel, especially in the even more dangerous winter months?

A group of men living in a camp on the near Calais have been speaking to the PA news agency about their motivations for doing so.

Shivan, who travelled from Iraq to France, says that he has no living family and the UK offers him the chance of a better life.

The 22-year-old explains he waits every day for someone to pick people up in a van to make the crossing, adding his turn is "hopefully tomorrow".

He says: "We just want to live. We're not scared to cross. It's better to cross. To get to the UK it's about 15,000 euro (£12,600)."

Image source, PA Media

Ali, 23, also from Iraq, explains the group living outside the warehouse are from "everywhere".

He said: "There's people here from Turkey, Belarus.

"We don't have a life. We want to live like you in the UK. You only have one life. People are trying and they die or have a chance to get past [the Channel]."

Speaking about the deaths yesterday, he says: "They had no chance to pass but we maybe do."

Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins tells the BBC more deaths will happen in the English Channel unless French patrols are stepped up.

He says he "doesn't buy" the argument that it's too difficult to do.

Earlier today, the French MP for Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont, said it would not be practical to expect more police officers to patrol the shoreline in France, because the coastline is too large.

At least 27 people, including a young girl, drowned while heading to the UK when their inflatable boat sank shortly after leaving the French port of Calais.

The boats used to make such trips across the English Channel are often small and overcrowded, making the journey so perilous.

Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

The vice-president of Hauts-de-France - the northern region where Calais is situated - has called on the UK to take tougher action against human trafficking gangs.

Franck Dhersin claims the gang leaders are based in the UK and invest money into the City - the country's financial hub.

"There are different levels of traffickers. There are the little guys who work on the ground, and there are hundreds of them," Dhersin tells France-Info radio.

"When the police arrest them, they arrest a load, and then three or four days later, there are new ones. It’s exactly like the drugs trade," he says, claiming that "the heads of this mafia are in London".

"Every day they earn hundreds of millions of euros and they invest their money in the City."

Image source, Reuters

Little is known of the 27 people who lost their lives when their inflatable boat lost air and took on water off the port of Calais.

Only two people survived, one of them Somali and one from Iraq, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. He said they were recovering from extreme hypothermia and would be questioned in due course.

Among the dead were 17 men, seven women and three children, prosecutors in Lille told the BBC. Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart said one of the women was pregnant, while one of the children was a "little girl".

Forensic investigations are under way but no-one has yet been named.

The BBC has spoken to several charities, who said many of the dead appear to have been Kurds from Iraq and Iran. Some may have been Arabs and Afghans, as well as other Iranians.

Handa Majed, founder of the Kurdish Umbrella charity, said she had been in touch with various sources who were trying to identify those who died.

Based on her research, the majority of them appeared to be Iraqi Kurds, she said, and that was not surprising.

"Young people in Kurdistan don't have any jobs," she said. "There's no prosperity. There's no social support system like in the UK, so if you don't have a job, you could starve to death."

Read more here.

Dominic Casciani
Home Affairs Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

"The government is determined to continue to crack down on the evil trade in such trafficking, whose perpetrators have no regard for human life," said the home secretary.

No, not Priti Patel - but Jack Straw in June 2000 when 58 migrants suffocated in the back of a lorry as they were smuggled across the English Channel.

Wednesday's 27 deaths appear to be the worst single loss of life in the English Channel in a day.

But the brutal fact is that over two decades of attempts to control the flow of seemingly desperate people - nobody in power in the UK or France has found a way to stop the crossings.

Read in full: Channel migrants: 20 years of failures?

Religious leaders from across the UK have called for a "better system" for people seeking to come to Britain.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and leader of Catholics in England and Wales, described it as a "tragic summons to action".

"Every one is a child of God, with an innate dignity and worth," he writes.

"Focused international co-operation, safe routes to sanctuary and joint efforts to tackle poverty are all needed in the face of a global flood of desperate humanity."

And Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the most senior Jewish religious leader in the UK, writes on Twitter: "27 precious souls lost, They were not the first, we must do everything we can to ensure they are the last."

And as we reported earlier the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has described the deaths as a "devastating loss of human life", adding: This cannot go on."

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, here is what we know so far about the tragic events of the last 24 hours:

• At least 27 people have died trying to cross the English Channel in a small boat
• The alarm was raise by French fishermen on Wednesday afternoon, who spotted bodies floating in the sea off the coast of Northern France
• Among the dead were 17 men, seven women - one of whom was pregnant - and three children, believed to be Kurdish people from Iraq or Iran
• Two people were rescued and are in a critical condition with severe hypothermia in hospital, one of whom was from Iraq and the other from Somalia
• Autopsies and the process of identifying the victims will take place over the next few days, while prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation
• Five alleged traffickers linked to the incident have been arrested by French police

• The cause of the accident is unknown, but the inflatable boat being used was found by rescuers mostly deflated
• The dinghy has been described by France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin as "extremely fragile" and "like a pool you blow up in your garden"
• Police say the boat set out from the Dunkirk area, east of Calais
• Reports indicate about 25 boats had attempted the crossing yesterday, with at least two more boats carrying around 40 people arriving in Dover on Thursday

For more details about what happened, click here.

Mark Easton
Home editor

The record number of migrants arriving into the UK in small boats has pushed the annual total of asylum applications up 18% to just over 37,500.

The top five countries of origin of people seeking asylum were Iran, Eritrea, Albania, Iraq and Syria.

Among those claiming asylum were more than 3,000 unaccompanied children.

The figures also reveal how many of the asylum seekers were presented with a Home Office "notice of intent" telling them they faced deportation because they were deemed inadmissible under new government rules.

These include people who could have claimed asylum in a "safe country" before arriving in the UK.

The Home Office has issued 6,500 notices since January but only resolved a third (32%) of those cases. Of those, just 48 people were deemed to be inadmissible under the regulations, 10 of whom have been removed.

Image source, Reuters

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has criticised Home Secretary Priti Patel for her handling of asylum seekers crossing the Channel, saying he is “sick” of what he calls a lack of action.

Sir Keir tells the BBC’s Political Thinking programme with Nick Robinson: “I am sick of the home secretary playing to the sort of headlines on this, with grand statements about what she is going to do, turning boats back and all the rest of it, but actually not achieving anything.”

Patel has consistently promised tougher action to cut the number of crossings and pledged to “break the business model” of the people traffickers. The government is bringing forward legislation to criminalise the crossing of the Channel in small boats without immigration permission.

But the number of crossings has continued to rise, with more than 25,000 people making the perilous journey so far this year - more than three times the entire total for 2020.

Earlier this month the number of arrivals exceeded 1,000 in one day.

Sir Keir also criticises French law enforcement after several arrests were made today, saying: "I find it hard to accept that those arrests could not have been made last week or the week before... there is a law enforcement problem here."

But the Labour leader adds that the UK needs to co-operate with French authorities to help people stuck in camps in northern France leave them safely.

And he says that while the UK needs an effective border policy, there should be “legal” routes for people to come to the country.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has just finished her statement to the House of Commons. During about an hour of exchanges she told MPs there is "no quick fix" to the problem of migrants trying to reach the UK in small boats:

• she said she had renewed an offer from the UK to start joint patrols with France, during a call with her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin earlier
• she insisted that the Channel crossings are "unnecessary" and "illegal" - and asylum seekers should apply in the first safe country they enter
• she added that there should be greater intelligence sharing with France, and a role for private companies in patrolling the Channel
• her Labour counterpart Nick Thomas-Symonds called for a scheme allowing unaccompanied refugee children to come to the UK to be reinstated

Reality Check

Image source, PA Media

Immigration minister Kevin Foster was asked on BBC News this morning why the UK has not yet managed to reach agreements about returning asylum seekers to other EU countries to replace the Dublin Regulation, which the UK was part of before Brexit.

The Dublin Regulation states that a person's asylum claim can be transferred to the first member state they enter. It also allows for transfers based on reuniting families.

This morning, Foster said: “I think people would say the Dublin Regulation wasn’t particularly successful in itself.”

Between 2015 and 2020, 1,763 people were moved from the UK to other EU countries under the regulations.

In the same period, 3,961 people arrived in the UK, mostly for the purposes of reuniting families.

The UK proposed a more limited agreement as part of the withdrawal process, which would only have covered the transfer of unaccompanied, asylum-seeking children for the purposes of family reunions and also returning UK nationals residing in the EU and vice versa.

The EU did not publish a draft in this area and no agreement was reached.

Image source, House of Commons

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who sits as an independent MP, criticises the tactic of turning boats back - something Patel has authorised but has not deployed.

France is strongly against the approach, saying it breaks maritime law.

He says pushing back asylum seekers is "not a solution," adding: "It is brutality that will go down in history as a brutal treatment of desperate people at a desperate time."

Corbyn says it would be better to focus on the "causes of asylum" - which he lists as environmental disasters, poverty and wars.

In reply, Patel says it is "not the case" that everyone crossing the Channel is an asylum seeker.

She says there are "many barriers" to removing those who have no legal right to remain, and this is something the government's borders bill will address.

Martyn Day of the SNP calls yesterday's events a "devastating tragedy" and says he agrees that greater co-operation is required to tackle people smuggling gangs.

"However, this awful event should also signal a massive shift in approach to the provision of safe legal routes to the UK, not doubling down on criminalising those who are the victims if they get here with up to four years in prison," he says.

He asks Priti Patel to commit to the UK ending "dangerous and life-threatening push back tactics in the channel".

He says the "one measure that will make an immediate difference" is allowing asylum seekers and refugees to make their initial application from outside the UK "rather than forcing people to physically travel here to begin their applications".

Patel says "there is no simple solution" and settlement schemes that have existed previously "are not the answer". She says wider reforms are needed to make the asylum system fit for purpose.

Economic migrants are masquerading as asylum seekers and elbowing women and children who need help out of the way, she says.

Patel adds that safe and legal routes will create a legal path for people to make their claim outside of the UK so they don't have to come here - and when they do get here, they will be supported to start their new lives.

Asylum seekers hope to receive refugee status, meaning they can stay.

They must prove they cannot return to their home country because they fear persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Their asylum application can include their partner and any children under 18, if they are also in the UK.

Decisions are made by a caseworker. They consider things like the country of origin of the asylum seeker, or evidence of discrimination.

This is supposed to be done within six months, although most wait longer.

Correction 27 January 2022: Fear of persecution due to gender was accidentally omitted from the list of grounds for seeking asylum but has been added.