Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Calais, France

Image source, Reuters

We still know very little about the victims in this tragedy, or the reasons why their boat might have capsized.

The vessel they were travelling in was described by France’s Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, as “extremely fragile” – a long inflatable craft, of the kind often made specially for people-smuggling rings here.

It appeared to be severely deflated, he said.

An investigation has been opened into potential charges of people-smuggling and homicide. Four suspects, believed to be linked to the crossing, have already been arrested.

The French government is meeting this morning to coordinate its response.

President Macron has vowed to do whatever it takes to find and prosecute those responsible. “I won’t let the Channel become a cemetery,” he said in a statement.

The fear was always that these crossings would lead to tragedy. Aid workers and police warned of it; migrants knew it themselves.

This route is a lucrative business for smuggling networks. But it’s their customers who pay the price.

A small protest and vigil took place at Calais port on Wednesday evening, with demonstrators calling for better treatment of migrants.

One banner read: "30 years of announcements, of inhuman and degrading treatment."

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex is to hold a crisis meeting in a couple of hours following the deaths in the Channel.

He'll meet with ministers to discuss a response after what he called a tragedy off the French shores.

Jack Hunter
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Conditions in camps in northern France are becoming so dire that migrants are prepared to risk their lives to reach Britain, aid workers say.

Maëlys Cossart, who works in camps around Dunkirk for the migrant organisation Solidarity Border, says she was disturbed but not surprised by Wednesday's tragedy in the English Channel.

"The situation in the camps is so bad, so cold, that they are prepared to take that risk," she says.

When she speaks to migrants - some of a few thousand living in make-shift camps along France's northern coast - they tell her of their "sadness and fear", and their determination to reach the UK.

She says asylum seekers she speaks to want to get to Britain because they think they'll have a greater chance of finding work, and to reunite with their family members.

In recent days, French authorities have dismantled several migrant camps and promised to house those living there in new accomodation.

A number of what appear to be funeral vans have been pictured in the port of Calais.

The PA news agency says the vehicles arrived at a warehouse in the port. The drivers were spoken to by police before being followed by officers into the building.

Image source, AFP

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council charity, said Germany processes asylum claims within six months - whereas in the UK it is often more than one year.

He said the system "is not efficient or effective" and that it should not leave people "languishing in limbo" without the means to access the internet.

He said any proposal to conduct asylum claims outside of the UK would be "cruel, it lacks compassion, it lacks humanity... and it won't act as a deterrent" because people are coming to the UK because of "very powerful push factors".

These include situations that would see many of those making crossings recognised as legitimate refugees, he said.

The boat full of people who lost their lives were just part of a larger group of thousands who attempt to cross the Channel each year.

On the north coast of France, there are several makeshift camps set up by migrants waiting to make the perilous journey. The BBC visited one in recent days in Dunkirk, just half an hour’s drive north of Calais.

The people there had been moved on by French authorities from a larger camp a week ago, and had just their sleeping bags and small belongings with them.

When asked why he was making the journey, one migrant said he’d been told to “Go to the UK, because it’s better than all the other countries in Europe”.

It is "impossible" to prevent people from leaving the French coast for the UK, a French official has said.

Franck Dhersin, vice-president of transport in the Hauts-de-France region, which includes the ports of Calais and Dunkirk, told the BBC's World Tonight programme that law enforcement officials were fighting a losing battle to stop migrants making the crossing.

"The police and the gendarmerie stop hundreds of boats each day, but there are many, many, many boats. It's impossible along the coast between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dunkirk - it's 100km.

"It's impossible to stop everybody and when they are stopped they make the trip another time, the day after."

He added: "It's impossible to say: 'Don't cross the British Channel - it's forbidden, it's too dangerous.' No, they have only one idea - to go to England."

Child refugee advocate and Labour Peer Alf Dubs has tweeted saying the tragedy, in which at least two children died, had hardly been “unforeseen”.

The House of Lords member had attempted last year to restore rights for unaccompanied child refugees to be reunited with their families in the UK.

But his amendment, which passed the House of Lords, was then voted down by the government in what he said was a “bitterly disappointing” move.

Lord Dubs - who came to the UK as a child to escape the Nazis – has long argued that offering a safe, legal route into the UK would help thwart trafficking operations, like the fatal one on Wednesday.

The British Red Cross has described Wednesday's deaths as "truly heartbreaking" - and called on the UK government to make it easier, not harder, to claim asylum in the UK.

Mike Adamson, the organisation's chief executive, said in a statement that "nobody puts their life at risk unless they are absolutely desperate and feel they have no other options".

He suggested that the government could put in place "ambitious plans for new safe routes and a commitment to resettle 10,000 people a year".

It comes after Home Secretary Priti Patel said earlier this year that asylum claims would be judged on the basis of how people arrived in the UK - penalising those who entered illegally.

She argued this was the best way to crack down on the people smugglers.

The plan was criticised by Labour as lacking compassion.

Image source, Getty Images

Today's tragedy comes just over a week after France dismantled a large migrant camp on its northern coast where increasing numbers of people hoping to reach the UK had settled.

French officers pulled down tents and evacuated up to 1,500 migrants from the site, near Dunkirk, last week.

Videos posted on social media showed scores of police vans at the camp, and people being taken onto coaches.

A French government spokesman told broadcaster France Inter that the camp had been dismantled in order to "shelter" the migrants, "especially as winter approaches".

But migrant organisation Utopia56 said the evacuation would only "lead to a dispersal and silencing of people, without any real accompanying solution".

On 11 November some 1,185 people made the dangerous crossing across the Channel, a record number that the UK government said was "unacceptable".

Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Calais, France

News of the tragedy has spread through the migrant camps here, bringing a sad kind of resignation. But everyone here accepted the risks a long time ago.

“Of course there is fear,” one young Sudanese man said. “Of course there is risk. But we’ll keep trying.”

He tried to cross in a small boat on Tuesday but gave up when the waves got too high. He’s planning to try again as soon as the conditions improve.

Over the past year, I’ve spoken to several people here who have found themselves in trouble after their engine failed or their boat capsized.

Some of them contact me hours after being pulled from the waves by rescue crews, describing how they waited in the water, wondering if anyone would come.

One man told me he thought he might die there. A few days later, he tried crossing again.

The fear was always that this level of hope and determination would lead to tragedy. But for every tragedy, and every near-miss, there are stories of boats arriving safely on British shores – great publicity for people-smugglers.

The crossing season has stretched far into the winter weather this year: it’s a lucrative business for smuggling networks.

But it’s their customers who pay the price.

The death toll has been revised down to 27, French government officials say.

It was previously reported that 31 migrants had drowned in the Channel on Wednesday.

The Minister for Immigration Compliance, Tom Pursglove, told BBC Two's Newsnight it had been a "thoroughly depressing day" that he "always feared".

He said "the simple truth is that people should not be putting their lives in the hands of evil people smugglers to come to the United Kingdom leaving what are safe countries in order to get here".

"But of course I think the clear message that comes out of today is that we must re-double our efforts, working collaboratively to address this issue and make this route unviable," he added.

Asked if he would like to see France's northern shore patrolled by UK officers, Pursglove said "we need to go further, we need to deepen that collaboration and that cooperation".

"It is the case that in the past we have offered to host and help with joint patrols and I think that could be invaluable in helping to address this issue and I really do hope the French reconsider that offer."

Speaking to BBC Two's Newsnight, Mirelle Clapot, a member of the French National Assembly said that the only solution can be found through co-operation.

"France has some limited means and resources and I think France does its best but it’s really facing a challenge.

"The smugglers are becoming more and more powerful and want to make more and more money and so they convince these poor people that it’s time to cross the channel even when it is very cold and very dark."

She said that the state had tried to propose other places to live in France but the migrants "have one obsession - to cross the channel".

Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight

I understand that the strong thinking in Number 10 is that they would like to see joint UK and French patrols along the French northern coast. So that would mean British security forces and French security forces and the reason for that is that it is so very difficult to police the entire coastline.

The reason why that is so significant is that there is a feeling that if you can intercept as many as 75% or even 90% of the boats crossing, that would have a huge impact.

It would basically destroy the economic model of the smugglers and then it would break up their network.

This has been a huge issue in Downing Street.

I was talking to one senior official, they say that over the last 18 months, they have attended more meetings on this in number 10 than any other issue with the exception of Covid.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Here's the latest on the tragic news that dozens of migrants have drowned in the English Channel near Calais after their boat sank.

• Thirty-one migrants are confirmed to have lost their lives, including five women and two children, French authorities say
• Two people were rescued from the boat and are being treated in hospital, while another person is still missing, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has confirmed
• Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron have spoken on the phone and have agreed "to do everything possible to stop the gangs responsible for putting people’s lives at risk"
• This came after Darmanin described the commitment of UK resources to help address the issue of channel crossings as "minimal"
• La Voix Du Nord, a regional news site in northern France, is reporting that the boat was hit by a large ship, external
• The International Organization for Migration has said it is the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014
• Four people suspected to be linked to the people smuggling have been arrested by French police

More than 1,500 people suspected of being involved in human trafficking have been arrested by French authorities since 1 January, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin revealed at his briefing earlier.

The responsibility for the deaths of migrants in the Channel lay primarily with those people smugglers, he emphasised.

But he said 7,800 lives had been saved in that same time period.

Darmanin said: "Today alone, there were 780 policemen and gendarmes working on northern France’s shores. 255 migrants made it to the UK but we prevented 671 people from crossing the Channel in one day."

La Voix Du Nord, a regional news site in northern France is reporting that the boat was hit by a large ship., external

The site claims the vessel was a container ship.

The English Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

But migrants still use it to attempt to reach the UK. Since 1 January, more than 47,000 attempted crossings have been made, according to the French Interior Ministry.

Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron have agreed "to do everything possible to stop the gangs responsible for putting people’s lives at risk" following the deaths of 31 migrants in the Channel, Downing Street has said.

The British and French leaders spoke on the phone on Wednesday evening, according to Mr Johnson's spokesman.

The two "agreed on the urgency of stepping up joint efforts to prevent these deadly crossings", adding they needed to work closely with Belgium and the Netherlands - as well as others across Europe.

“Both leaders were clear that today’s tragic loss of life was a stark reminder that it is vital to keep all options on the table to stop these lethal crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs behind them,” the statement concluded.