Heartbreaking 2am plea calling for help was sent from sinking boat in Channel’s icy waters before four migrants died
A HEARTBREAKING 2am plea calling for help was sent from the sinking boat on the English Channel.
Four migrants lost their lives in the icy waters on Wednesday trying to cross over to the UK from France.
In a distressed WhatsApp voice note, a desperate boat passenger explains how the boat is filling up with water.
The voice in the 22 second recording can be heard saying: “We are in the water and we have a family.”
A child is said to have been heard crying in the background, reports i.
Shortly before capsizing, the message was delivered to Utopia 56 – a charity supporting migrants in Calais.
Spokesman Nikolai Posner said: “In the background of the message we can hear babies screaming.
“The man said the water was inside the boat and so they were in the water inside the boat, that families and kids were on board and that they needed emergency help.
“It was like ‘Help us, help us, help us, we need help’. He sounded young, probably from the Middle East.”
An email was then sent to the UK coastguard at 2.13am issuing a warning of a boat in distress.
However, authorities were not alerted until 3.05am.
The Government said they could not explain the delay in response – which eventually saw 39 people rescued.
A British fishing boat helped to pull survivors out of the flimsy and crowded dinghy.
Those they saved in the two-hour rescue told crew they had paid smuggling gangs £5,000 each for a crossing.
Last November at least 27 migrants drowned after their dinghy overturned.
More than 44,711 people have made the dangerous crossing on board small boats so far this year.
On Tuesday PM Rishi Sunak announced new measures to stop the boats. Yesterday he expressed his sorrow at the “tragic loss of human life”.