At least 12 unaccompanied children were among approximately 40 people rescued when their inflatable boat capsized in the English Channel on Wednesday, it has been revealed.
Four people died in the tragedy, including a teenage boy.
A French charity has revealed the details of a distressing call for help from migrants in the English Channel, more than an hour before British authorities were alerted to the disaster.
Utopia 56, which helps migrants in Calais, said people could be heard begging for help in the voice note as voices screamed in the background.
In the message, which was sent via WhatsApp shortly before 2am UK time, a man can be heard saying there was water inside the boat with “families and kids” on board, Nikolai Posner, communications officer for Utopia 56, told PA news agency.
“It was clearly an emergency, he was calling for help,” he said.
Kent Council leader Roger Gough told Sky News the council had taken a dozen children into care.
A spokesman for lifeboat rescue charity RNLI said crews faced a harrowing situation of finding people distressed in the water. He said that after taking a number of survivors back to Dover the crews returned once more in an attempt to find more people. The fact four people died is a "stark reminder of how dangerous this stretch of water can be", he said.
The coastguard said it was alerted to the emergency in the waters off Kent shortly after 3.05am. A major rescue operation was launched minutes later.
Mr Posner said the charity tried to respond to the message at the time but the reply was not received, so it then contacted both the French and UK coastguards.
It is not clear why a rescue boat was only launched an hour after the charity informed authorities of the distress message, Mr Posner said.
“We don't know what really happened during that time,” he said.
In audio of the voice note, obtained by Channel 4 News, a man can be heard saying: “We are in a boat and we have a problem. Please help.
“We have children and families in a boat. Water is coming in. We don't have anything for this, for feeling safety. Please help me bro. Please, please. We are in the water. We have a family.”
According to reports, the migrants were from countries including Afghanistan and Iraq. At least four children were among the group and the youngest was only 11 from Afghanistan.
The migrants told rescuers they had paid smugglers in France £5,000 ($6,160) for assistance to reach the UK. They got to a point halfway between France and the UK when their boat sank.
UK coastguard responds to migrant emergency in English Channel — in pictures
The search-and-rescue mission involved the British and French navies, the UK Border Force and Kent Police.
Rescue teams, life boats, an air ambulance and a fishing boat all assisted in the rescue, the agency said.
More than 30 people were pulled from the water by rescuers, according to a government spokesman.
A fisherman spoke about how migrants surrounded his boat in the early hours of the morning “screaming for help”.
The skipper, named only as Raymond, said his crew saved 31 people stranded in the Channel, adding: “It was like something out of a Second World War movie — there were people in the water everywhere, screaming.”
Footage showed a group of people, squashed inside a sinking dinghy which was filling with water, being hauled up over the side of a boat with rope.
The tragedy came a day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled new measures to curb Channel crossings, telling the House of Commons: “We have to stop the boats.”
More than 44,000 people have made the dangerous crossing this year, government figures show.
On Wednesday, Mr Sunak expressed his sorrow at the “capsizing of a small boat” in the English Channel, telling MPs there had been a “tragic loss of human life”.
“I am sure the whole House will share my sorrow at the capsizing of a small boat in the Channel in the early hours of this morning, and the tragic loss of human life,” he said.
“Our hearts go out to all those affected and our tributes to those involved in the extensive rescue operation.”
Dover and Deal MP Natalie Elphicke urged Mr Sunak to “meet urgently” with French President Emmanuel Macron to set up joint patrols in the Channel and on the beaches to prevent boats entering the water and to save lives.
“Urgent action is needed now,” the Tory MP said.
In Dover, a black body bag was brought ashore on a stretcher at about 11.15am and taken to forensics tents outside the RNLI headquarters.
Temperatures were likely to have been freezing in the Channel at the time of the incident amid a cold snap sweeping across the UK.
Campaigners sought to blame the government's “hostile” asylum policies for the deaths, which they said were “predictable and avoidable”, while Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the incident showed “debates about asylum seekers are not about statistics, but precious human lives”.
At least 27 migrants died when a dinghy sank while heading to the UK from France in November last year.
A recent documentary revealed they made several emergency calls to UK authorities before they drowned.