Six migrant deaths in the Channel an 'appalling and preventable tragedy'

The Refugee Council urged the Government to respond to the incident with “compassion” while Freedom from Torture accused ministers of “hostile” attitudes towards refugees.

Opposition MPs said the tragedy highlighted the need for action to prevent dangerous crossings being made.

The French coast guard said the vessel got into difficulty in the Channel near Calais in the early hours of Saturday.

Officials said 59 people, many of them Afghans, were rescued but six were pronounced dead.

Volunteer rescuers told the Reuters news agency that the vessel was “overloaded” as there were too many people on board and some of them were children from Afghanistan and Sudan.

When the French lifeboat arrived, they found people screaming for help in the water and some people on the sinking boat were using their shoes to bail water out.

Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: it was “an appalling and preventable tragedy”.

“Those who died were not just statistics, but individual people: someone’s children, someone’s siblings, and possibly someone’s parents,” he said.

"We send our deepest sympathies to their friends and families.

“This terrible loss of life demonstrates yet again the need for a system of safe passage to the UK for refugees.

“This would enable them to apply for asylum while in France, and then to travel safely to the UK without risking their lives in small boats.

“It would put the people smugglers out of business overnight.”

Kolbassia Haoussou, from Freedom from Torture, said: “The UK Government has used the demonisation of refugees as a tactic to distract us from their failings, which have left us with a cost-of-living crisis, the NHS on its knees, and public sector strikes.

“If this Government fails to humanely address this issue, then innocent lives will continue to be lost.”