Child among five migrants dead and 47 rescued in English Channel hours after Rwanda bill passed [Video]

A seven-year-old girl is among five migrants who died after being crushed on an overcrowded boat during an attempt to cross the English Channel, just hours after Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda bill was passed by Parliament.

Mr Sunak said the tragic deaths underlined the need for the deterrent of the controversial scheme, but senior figures at the United Nations and the Council of Europe have continued to strongly condemn the plan.

The five migrants appeared to have been caught in a panic on board when the small boat, carrying 112 people, ran aground on a sandbank not long after leaving Plage des Allemands beach in Wimereux in northern France.

French navy sailors discovered them “unconscious and in a serious condition” before taking them ashore where, despite resuscitation attempts, they died, local official Jacques Billant told reporters.

Others were helped …