French police clear site where Channel tragedy victims are believed to have lived | Immigration and asylum

French police have cleared a camp believed to have been used by some of the dozens of people, including six children, who died after their rowing boat broke apart in the Channel.

Early on Wednesday morning, belongings and tents were cleared away and dozens of people were taken away in buses from an unofficial refugee camp near Calais, known locally as the “BMX site”.

Six children and a pregnant woman were among 12 people killed Tuesday morning when a rickety rowing boat carrying 65 people plunged into the water three miles off Cap Gris-Nez, south of Calais. Ten of the dead were women.

It emerged that shortly before the boat collapsed, 15 people had been safely brought to a lifeboat after calling for help, but most had chosen to continue sailing.

According to French prosecutors, many of the victims of the tragedy came from the north-east African state of Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The French government has a ‘no fixation’ policy designed to deter people trying to cross to the UK from living in camps on the coast. Early on Wednesday morning, diggers and riot police were mobilised to clear a site where Eritreans were staying.

Charities working with migrants in northern France said survivors of Tuesday’s shipwreck were among those who lost possessions during the clearance, but this could not be independently verified.

Despite the recent loss of life in the Channel, dozens more people risked their lives on Wednesday, including on a heavily laden vessel that left from nearby Wimereux under the watch of patrol boats.

The boat was so overcrowded that some people on board had their legs dragging in the water. A young girl holding a mobile phone and not wearing a life jacket was among those on board. Asked why it did not intervene, the French maritime agency said it would be dangerous to force such vessels back to shore.

A spokesman said: “It is difficult to reach with more than 50 people on board who are stubbornly refusing to be rescued. The biggest risk is a stampede on board and then capsizing, these boats are neither stable nor reliable.

“The risk of loss of life is too high for a coercive intervention, the choice is made to prioritize the protection of the people on board, and by simply remotely controlling the navigation capabilities of these boats. So it is more a question of ethics than of blind application of the law.”

Later on Wednesday, around 100 people were seen disembarking at Dover Port after three dinghies were intercepted by UK Border Force vessels Typhoon and Defender.

Jean-Luc Dubaële, mayor of Wimereux, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the British and French authorities could not allow the situation to continue any longer.

He said: “Unfortunately, every day is like this for us. The smugglers – a criminal network – persist in sending people to their deaths in the Channel. It is truly unacceptable, it is outrageous. And it is high time that a lasting solution is found with Britain.”

The decision to use excavators to clear the Eritrean settlement and bus some of the victims found there to north-east France was condemned by local charities, who said the authorities were putting more lives at risk.

Flore Judet, from the group Auberge des Migrants, told the Guardian: “Today’s eviction was really violent. We feel so much sadness and anger about the deaths yesterday. We have seen months and years of repression orchestrated by the French police and paid for by the UK. Yesterday, 12 people died because they wanted to run away from this violent place.”

Keir Starmer’s new government has said it plans to crack down on gangs behind border crossings, but the difficulties facing Britain’s law enforcement were highlighted at Sevenoaks Youth Court on Wednesday when the Crown Prosecution Service was forced to drop cases against two young men charged with an immigration offence during an April Channel crossing that left five people, including a seven-year-old girl, dead.

The charges of attempted illegal entry into the UK were dropped after months of delays due to age assessments. The National Crime Agency (NCA) had described the youths as being in their 20s when they were first arrested and charged, but this was disputed. Court documents for Wednesday’s hearing showed the boys, from South Sudan and Sudan, were listed as 15 and 16 years old.