At least 30 UK-bound migrants have drowned in the deadliest ever incident of its kind on the Channel after their boat capsized off Calais today, just hours after French police were pictured standing by and watching as dinghies were launched from the coast.
Tragedy struck shortly after 2pm Wednesday when an 'overloaded' boat capsized in rough seas amid rain and cold weather and was found by fishermen, with three coastguard vessels and a helicopter rushed to the scene.
The 27 deaths are the biggest single-day loss of life from migrant crossings in the Channel, with the previous grim record believed to be a family of five Kurdish-Iranians who drowned in October last year.
Downing Street said Boris Johnson would be chairing an emergency Cobra meeting this afternoon amid anger from Tory MPs over soaring numbers of migrant crossings from France - with 25,000 landing on the south coast this year.
Just hours before the accident, pictures taken on a beach near Wimereux, a few miles north of Boulogne-sur-Mer, showed a group of 40 migrants pushing dinghies out to sea watched by police who seemingly did nothing to stop them. The boats were later pictured arriving in the UK, meaning they are not the same as the one that capsized.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke told MailOnline that the French must now act to stop more loss of life. 'This is an absolute tragedy. It underlines why saving lives at sea starts by stopping the boats entering the water in the first place,' the Tory MP said.
'As Winter is approaching the seas will get rougher, the water colder, the risk of even more lives tragically being lost greater. That's why stopping these dangerous crossings is the humanitarian and right thing to do.' Officers apparently made no attempt to stop the group, which included at least five children, despite the French government vowing a crackdown just yesterday.
The vow was made as the French attempted to explain how £9million of British money, part of a £54million deal to stop the migrants, has been spent as crossing soared to record levels.
Fellow Kent MP Craig Mackinlay told MailOnline: 'Promises by the French authorities to do all they can to prevent beach launchings are beyond wearing thin.
'The French have refused on-site help from UK Border Force and troops, they refuse to implement their own EU obligations under the Dublin Accords, they refuse to manage the pull factor of the Pas de Calais region.
'Their agenda, in advance of their Presidential elections, is now obvious - to destabilise British politics and are now straying into breaches of international border agreements.
'Whilst we could obviously do more domestically to speed up deportations, the true blame for this crisis must be directed to wilful failures across the channel.'
It comes against the backdrop of worsening relations between the UK and France over post-Brexit fishing licences in the Channel, and the AUKUS submarine pact with saw Australia tear up a billion-dollar French contract in favour of signing a new deal with Britain and America.
Amid the worsening relations, almost 25,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year - far eclipsing the roughly 8,000 who came in 2020 and 1,000 who arrived in 2019.
More than 4,000 have made the journey in November so-far, the most ever in a single month, and the surge shows no sign of slowing down.
French officials revealed details for the first time of how they have spent £9million from the British taxpayer, agreed as part of a £54million deal in the summer.
A spokesman for the interior ministry said: 'More than 100 mobile vehicles are being delivered on the ground for patrols and arrests, with equipment adapted to the specific nature of the terrain.'