THE “preventable” death of a refugee in the Channel must serve as an “urgent wake-up call” to Home Secretary Priti Patel, human rights groups said. 

French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation into the death of a man aged between 25 and 30 after a boat carrying 36 people sank off the coast of Dunkirk on Thursday morning. 

He was pulled unconscious onto a lifeboat by crew from a passing cargo ship and airlifted to hospital in cardio-respiratory arrest, but did not survive.

Other people from the sinking vessel were hoisted aboard the helicopter while more were rescued by nearby fishing boats.

Charities said the tragic death could have been prevented had the British government opened safe routes for refugees to arrive in England. 

Ministers closed the only safe route allowing refugees from Europe to come to Britain earlier this year and are yet to open new resettlement schemes. 

As a result, Safe Passage, which supports child refugees stranded in Europe, said people fleeing conflict and persecution are “left with no choice but to risk the dangerous journey across the Channel in a dinghy to reach sanctuary in our communities.”

The charity’s head of campaigns, Gunes Kalkan, said: “This tragic death could have been prevented, if only the government opened safe alternative routes for refugees.”

Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “We are deeply saddened by this loss of life and our thoughts are with the family and friends who have lost their loved one.

“The Home Office must take this as an urgent wake-up call.

“Priti Patel needs to fundamentally change government policy and ensure that this does not happen again.”

It comes after a family of five died when their boat capsized in the Channel in October last year. 

Rasoul Iran-Nejad and his wife Shiva Mohammad Panahi, along with their four children including their 15-month son Artin, drowned while attempting the perilous crossing. 

Ms Kalkan added that the government could make the situation worse with its new Nationality and Borders Bill, which seeks to penalise asylum-seekers based on their means of entry to Britain. 

“We urge the government to act now to save lives by ditching their inhumane and unworkable Bill and opening safe routes to the UK for refugees,” she said.