'Maybe we will reach the UK or maybe we will die in the sea,’ say asylum seekers

The loss of an Iranian family in the Channel has renewed calls for a legal route to the UK

The call came on Tuesday night in Iran. A friend of mine in the UK, who had crossed the Channel a week ago, told me some people from Sardasht had died in the water," says Hawkar Iran Nezhad. Then he told me the names."

The latest of almost 300 asylum seekers to die crossing the Channel over the past two decades were his cousin Rasul Iran Nezhad, his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and their children: Anita, nine, Armin, six, and 15-month-old Artin, who is still missing.