Failure to save 27 lives in Channel exacerbated by confusion and lack of resources – report

Report identifies lack of aerial surveillance and personnel as contributing to deaths when small boat sank in 2021

• ‘Our mother believes Twana is alive somewhere – so I visit different countries looking, just in case’

Attempts to save 27 people who drowned in the deadliest Channel disaster for more than 40 years were compromised by confusion, lack of resources and poor communication between the UK and France, a report has found.

A failed operation to reach a stricken dinghy on 24 November 2021 identified the wrong boat, the report says. A Border Force cutter rescued 98 people in three other boats that night, but not those on the dinghy carrying the 27 who died.