UK, France argue over who should rescue sinking vessel as 27 drown in English Channel
Call logs released by France have revealed that French and British authorities ignored calls for help several times when a boat carrying asylum seekers ran into difficulty whilst crossing the English Channel late last year. | In the early hours of 24 November 2021, at least 27 people drowned as France and the UK passed responsibility between themselves for rescuing the dinghy. The call logs were revealed on The Crossing, an ITV documentary about the worst disaster in 30 years in the English Channel. The British government has so far refused to release any information about what happened that night, according to the documentary. 💬 "The fact of the matter is, over 30 people were left in the middle of the busiest shipping lane in the world, slowly perishing one by one, and almost nothing happened," said Schanck. ● This year, over 40,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats, many from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. Each year since 2018, the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats has almost doubled.