CHARITIES and campaigners renewed demands today for the introduction of safer routes for migrants into Britain after four members of a Kurdish-Iranian family died when their boat sank in the Channel. 

Rasoul Iran-Nejad, 35, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, 35, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, died on Tuesday in the sea off Dunkirk. A further 12 people were taken to hospital. 

The family’s 15-month-old son, identified by the BBC as Artin, is believed to be still missing, but French rescuers said that there was no hope of finding further survivors. 

The deaths will put pressure on the Home Office, which has repeatedly pledged to make the route “unviable.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel said that she was “truly saddened” to learn of the “tragic loss of life,” while Boris Johnson described the deaths as a “terrible incident.”

However, charities hit out at the government’s hostile approach to migrants. 

Refugee Action head of campaigns Mariam Kemple Hardy told the Star: “The Home Secretary herself has said a lack of these routes forces people into the arms of criminal smugglers. 

“Yet she refuses to resume her flagship resettlement programmes, which have been shut down since March and not welcomed a single refugee since then. 

“The government must ditch the hostile rhetoric and find the political will to restart resettlement.”

Others said that this latest tragedy must serve as a “turning point” for government policy, so that refugees no longer have to put their lives in peril to reach Britain’s shores. 

Refugee Council head of advocacy Andy Hewett said: “The lack of safe and regular routes into the UK for people fleeing war and persecution leaves them with little choice but to undertake these dangerous journeys.

“The government urgently needs to increase access to safe and regular routes, including changing the family reunion rules to enable more refugees to be reunited with their family members, immediately restarting the UK’s resettlement programme, and explore the development of humanitarian visas to enable people to make a claim for asylum without having to risk their lives.”

Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said: “We have repeatedly called for safe and legal routes for people to access asylum in the UK and prevent these senseless tragedies.

“Instead, Home Secretary Priti Patel has spent the summer whipping up hysteria about the Channel and painting these vulnerable people as invading foreigners, for political ends.”