A major search and rescue is underway in the English Channel, with reports that at least three bodies have been pulled from the water.
GB News understands UK and French authorities are searching for more victims, with reports a fourth body has been spotted floating in the sea, as bad weather sweeps back into the Channel.
It comes as people smugglers took advantage of a small weather window to push out multiple migrant boats from French shores.
GB News can reveal that at least six small boats have made it into UK waters today, and more than 300 migrants have been taken to the Border Force processing centre at Dover harbour.
Three bodies of suspected migrants have reportedly been recovered
GB News
If confirmed, that figure would amount to the biggest single-day arrival of small boat migrants in the month of February, since the crisis began in 2018.
The previous figure was surpassed just last weekend, when 290 migrants made the crossing in five small boats on Sunday.
The GB News team in Kent filmed exclusive images this afternoon as the Dungeness lifeboat battled through strongs winds and waves to bring a group of almost forty migrants to Dover.
Information surrounding this latest tragedy is still sketchy, but French vessels are understood to have recovered the bodies of three people in French waters.
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A fourth body has reportedly been spotted floating in the sea
GB News
UK and French authorities are still searching for more possible victims, using a UK Coastguard plane and helicopter as well as various lifeboats and Border Forces vessels.
Much of the search activity is concentrated near the Varne lightship, about 9 miles south west of Dover.
GB News Kent producer said weather conditions mid-Channel are “very poor and getting worse, with 25knot winds blowing currently.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “We can confirm there has been an incident in the Channel involving a small boat in French waters.
“French authorities are leading the response and investigation. We will not be commenting further at this stage.”
