‘Horror beyond words’: how Channel distress calls were ‘ignored’ 19 times before 2021 disaster

Investigation reveals that understaffed Dover control room was overwhelmed by calls from people in trouble before 27 died at sea

Read more: UK coastguard left Channel migrants adrift'

On the afternoon of 3 November 2021, a woman called Hampshire police. Her brother was crossing the Channel in a small boat that day, she said via a translator. But something awful had just happened. Twenty minutes earlier he'd texted to say that smugglers had begun shoving passengers overboard. Loads had been kicked off and were in the water", fighting for their lives in the treacherous currents of the world's busiest shipping lane.

Police passed the details to HM Coastguard and at 4.57pm an operator flagged the incident, according to internal logs obtained by the Observer and Liberty Investigates.