‘Tragic loss’
Ambulances and emergency workers gathered along the quay in Dover. Sky News said some people had been transferred to a hospital in Ashford, Kent, but it was not known whether they were survivors or had a fatality.
Speaking in Parliament, Sunak expressed grief over the accident.
Sunak said, “I am sure the whole House shares my grief this morning at the capsizing of a small boat in the Channel and the tragic loss of human life.”
“Our thoughts are with all those affected and our condolences to those involved in the extensive rescue operation.”
Interior Minister Suella Braverman, whose ministry oversees migration policy, placed the blame firmly on trafficking gangs.
He told Parliament, “Crossing the Channel in unseaworthy vessels is a mortally dangerous endeavor.”
“This is above all the reason why we are working so hard to destroy the business model of people smugglers: rogue, organized criminals who treat human beings as cargo.”
Braverman had recently called the wave of arrivals an “invasion”, prompting an angry reaction from Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Refugee charity Care4Calais accused the government of doing nothing to stop the migrant deaths, which was “completely unnecessary and preventable”.
“By failing to act, our government has blood on its hands,” the charity said in a statement.
It said that migrants have faced horrific incidents of conflict, human rights abuses and torture.
“They have been brave and resilient enough to survive and survive incredible journeys to come here and ask for our help. And yet we deny them.”