UK PM Holds Crisis Meeting After Channel Deaths

London, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Nov, 2021 ) :British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday convened top officials for crisis talks after at least 27 migrants died crossing the Channel from France to England.

"The PM will chair a COBR on the situation in the Channel this afternoon," a Downing Street spokesperson said, referring to the UK government's emergencies committee.

The disaster is the single worst loss of life recorded in recent times from migrant crossings in the Channel, and comes as tensions grow between London and Paris over the record numbers of people braving the perilous crossing.

"This is an absolute tragedy. It underlines why saving lives at sea starts by stopping the boats entering the water in the first place," said Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for the Channel port of Dover.

"As winter is approaching the seas will get rougher, the water colder, the risk of even more lives tragically being lost greater," she said.

"That's why stopping these dangerous crossings is the humanitarian and right thing to do."The government has extended financial support to help French authorities combat the crossings before migrants reach UK waters, but has made its frustration clear that so many are still getting across.

More than 25,700 people have made the cross-Channel journey in small boats this year, three times the total for the whole of 2020, according to data compiled by Britain's PA news agency.