A heroic fishing crew that helped pull migrants onto their boat from the freezing water in the English Channel described the scene “like something out of a Second World War movie”.
Four migrants sadly died in the early hours of the morning when the small dinghy collapsed on itself in sub-zero temperatures just five miles off the coast of Dungeness in Kent.
Up to 43 people including children were rescued today, and 31 of those were rescued by the fishermen over the course of two hours – but at least one could not be saved.
Video from the harrowing mission shows multiple people gripping a lifeboat as their small dingy starts to fold in on itself.
Raymond, the captain, said he was woken up by a crew member who said “there are migrants alongside the boat”.
He told Sky News : “It was like something out of a Second World War movie, there were people in the water everywhere, screaming.
“The dinghy started to drift away, so I steamed towards the dinghy and we secured it with a rope to the side of the boat.
“We were trying to pull them off the dinghy.”
He said they managed to drag 31 onto the boat and said they had come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal and India.
Raymond also said they had reportedly paid £5,000 to a smuggler in France for passage into the UK.
They counted 45 people trying to cling to the side of the vessel.
The boat, which was carrying up to 50 people, got into difficulty in icy waters during sub-zero temperatures in the early hours of this morning – with the coastguard and navy ships racing to the scene.
Temperatures last night were said to be -4C as rescue boats and ambulances were called at about 3am before launching crews off the coast.
Images from Dover today showed those who had been rescued, including small children.
Another Dover-based fisherman said that the temperature of the sea mid-Channel was just 9C.
The trawlerman who asked not to be named said: “If you went into the sea mid-channel without a dry suit or protective clothing in those temperatures you would have about five minutes before you began to struggle.
“You would start to get cramps in your limbs which would make things really difficult to try and stay afloat.”
The unfolding emergency comes a day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a five-point plan to stop perilous crossings of the world’s busiest shipping lane.