THE government has failed to learn lessons from the Channel disaster, rights groups have claimed amid renewed calls for safe routes on the first anniversary of the tragedy. 

Candle-lit vigils will be held on Thursday evening in France and England to remember and demand justice for those who lost their lives on November 24 2021, when a dinghy carrying 34 people capsized in the English Channel. 

Twenty-seven bodies were recovered, including seven women and three children, while five people remain missing in the worst maritime disaster in the Channel in over three decades. Just two survivors were rescued from the waters.

Instead of ensuring that such a disaster is not repeated, campaigners claim that the government has since pursued policies that have made conditions “more dangerous” for asylum-seekers.

In recent months, the Tories have doubled down on border security, announcing a new deal with France to ramp up patrols along the coast, and introducing anti-refugee laws to make it more difficult for people to claim asylum in Britain.  

A spokesperson from anti-borders group Action Against Detention and Deportations said: “The government has learnt nothing from the disaster in the Channel a year ago. 

“With news of a £63 million deal made with France this month to prevent Channel crossings, we ask why that money is not put towards providing the support needed desperately by those reaching British shores? 

“Increased securitisation of the Channel for the purpose of deterrence will only push people into increasingly unsafe routes, or into travelling at night, which will inevitably result in more deaths.”

Institute of Race Relations vice-chair Frances Webber said: “A year after the loss of 32 lives in the avoidable Channel disaster, the British government shows no interest in any constructive measures, such as creating safe legal routes for those seeking sanctuary or family reunion in the UK.

“Instead, with French co-operation, [it is] doubling down on failed military ’solutions’ which simply force travellers into yet more dangerous journeys,” she said. 

Echoing these concerns, Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton warned that policies of deterrence, such as the Rwanda deal, “will never work because a tiny minority of people fleeing war and persecution around the world will always need the UK to be a place to seek safety.”

A report by the Freedom from Torture charity, published this week, claims that the Tory’s “failed” asylum policies have “increased the risk of tragic incidents like the 2021 Channel disaster,” pointing to the death of a man detained at Manston last week. 

Iraqi Kurd Ali — not his real name — who lost his childhood friend of 22 years Shakar Ali Pirot in the disaster also accused the British government of failing to learn lessons. 

“If they had any compassion for people they would provide safe journeys,” he told the Morning Star. 

Ali, who was in Dunkirk at the time of the disaster, said he also knew five other people on the boat that night. None of them survived. The majority of the people who died in the disaster were from Iraqi Kurdistan. 

“I felt so deeply devastated, I couldn’t do anything,” he says, recalling the moment he found out six of his friends had drowned in the Channel. 

He added: “We are the nations [who] participated fighting the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. They are defeated. We have protected the life of British people, why [should] our life be ignored in a dangerous crossing of the English Channel?” 

Family members and friends of the victims are expected to attend a vigil in Parliament Square at 6pm tonight, organised by Care4Calais, the TUC and Stand up to Racism. 

Ahead of the vigil, Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley said: “The families need answers now and we must know what lessons should be learned from this tragedy before more people die.”

Separate commemorative events will also be held outside the Home Office in London at 5pm and Sunny Sands Beach in Folkestone at 6pm. 

Mourners are also expected to gather in Paris on Thursday evening. Niko Posner, communication co-ordinator of French charity Utopia 56, one of the organisers of the event, said: “On November 24 2022, we decided to unite to honour these people and to denounce the politics at the border.

 “We shouldn’t treat the question of human rights and dignity with repression,” he said. “We need safe passage, it’s the only solution for human rights to be respected.”

A government spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with the families of all of those who lost their lives in the tragic incident last November.

“We cannot have a repeat of this devastating event which is why we are working with our international partners to disrupt the people smuggling gangs behind these dangerous crossings who are putting lives at risk with every journey they arrange.”