Four people perished after a dinghy traveling across the English Channel capsized in the chilly seas, including a young immigrant.
Up to 12 of those dragged from the Arctic Sea during the global rescue operation were minors seeking refuge alone.
According to the council leader, one of the four victims of yesterday’s tragedy off the coast of Dungeness, Kent, was a child or young adult in their teens.
Four more individuals are still missing and presumed dead, and a significant rescue effort is still underway in the water off the shore.
Yesterday, four corpses were recovered from the ocean after the inflatable boat was discovered in trouble in the early morning hours.
A total of 43 persons were retrieved from the sea including those who died away.
Yesterday, shortly before 8.30am, an air ambulance touched down at Dover Marina. Ambulances lined the harborside while emergency services erected forensic tents.
Two of the 39 people who were saved alive were brought to Ashford, Kent’s William Harvey Hospital.
The incident served as “a sad reminder of the human consequences of what is an on-going catastrophe,” according to Roger Gough, head of Kent County Council.
One of the fatalities was a teenager and a youngster, according to Conservative Cllr Gough, who was speaking to the council today. Twelve of those who were saved were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC).
‘Forty-three were rescued [from the sea], of whom four have perished, one of whom we think was a kid, a teenager,’ he added, adding that arrangements had been lined up for them. Four more persons are still missing.
“Our team believes they have played a vital and very good role in our attempts to achieve recovery from this tragedy because they have been working with the NHS and other partners to develop wrap-around care for people who have been taken from the sea.”
Men, women, and children from Senegal, Afghanistan, India, and Iraq were among those on board the boat.
Screams could be heard in the background during a phone call made at 2.53am by a guy whose family was submerged.
“Help me, buddy, please, please, please,” he was heard pleading. We have a family and we are in the water.
The search and rescue effort was initiated after officials were initially notified to the situation at 3.05am.
Anyone using the waterway was requested by the Maritime and Coastguard Service to “report any observations” in the water to the coastguard.
Yesterday, the owner of a fishing company informed reporters about how the crew of one of his boats saw a boat in trouble and intervened to rescue 31 people.
Video taken from the boat shows individuals begging for aid while being pulled out of the sea by fishing crew members wearing flimsy life jackets and merely t-shirts.
Mr. Squire, who was not there during the rescue, said that captain Ray Strachan informed him that 31 individuals were rescued.
Up to 14 boats, four helicopters, and a fixed-wing aircraft participated in international rescue operations throughout the night.
Today’s search is said to have benefited from the use of a drone.
‘The search and rescue of passengers from a small boat in the English Channel commenced at 2:16am yesterday (December 14), with initial assets despatched by HM Coastguard,’ according to a Home Office spokesman.
A fishing boat was the first to arrive at the site, arriving at 3:04 am.
‘Over the course of the next several hours, a total of 43 individuals have been pulled from the sea; 39 of them were saved alive, while four tragically perished.
The HM Coastguard, Royal Navy, Border Force, RNLI lifeboats, French Navy, three fishing vessels, South East Coast Ambulance, and Kent Police were all engaged in yesterday’s intensive search and rescue effort.
“The search using aircraft assets has continued all night and this morning to make sure everyone is found,” said the spokesperson. All shipping has been asked to station lookouts on board their vessels and report any sightings to Dover Coastguard, per a broadcast from HM Coastguard.
The families of those who lost their lives and all who were impacted by this awful occurrence are in our thoughts.
At 5.30 p.m. this evening, a vigil will be held in memory of those who have passed away at an event on Walmer Green, Deal, Kent.
»Four migrants drown in the Channel while 30 are saved«