The migrant boat that capsized and left five people dead including a little girl was allowed to continue its journey and was escorted towards the UK by the French Navy.
Three men, a woman and a four-year-old girl drowned after the dinghy they were on flipped over in the early hours of this morning off the coast of northern France, casting around 112 people into the Channel.
Today, a Calais official admitted that while dozens were rescued and brought back to France, 58 people refused to leave the ship.
Instead, they restarted the engine and continued their journey to Britain 'under the surveillance of the French Navy'.
Elements of the French forces trying to stop migrants crossing the Channel illegally are funded by the British taxpayer.
A migrant dinghy floating in the Channel today as a clipper sails towards it
A dinghy - believed to have been used to cross the Channel - is taken off a recovery boat at the Port of Dover
A helicopter of the Emergency medical services takes off from Wimereux on April 23
The regional governor of the Calais region, Prefet Jacques Billant (pictured), condemned the human traffickers who packed this morning's victims into the boat
It is thought the small boat was launched from Wimereux in northern France, between Boulogne and Calais
Early this morning, the migrants initially launched their ship from Wimereux beach. French police tried to stop the migrants until they got into the boat, at which point the officers gave up, the BBC reported.
The regional governor of the Calais region, Prefet Jacques Billant, said: 'They managed to restart the engine and decided to continue their sea route towards Great Britain under the surveillance, of course, of the French Navy.'
He condemned the human traffickers who had packed this mornings victims into an overcrowded boat.
Prefet Billant said: 'Some 112 souls were packed into that boat. It was unseaworthy – not properly inflated and completely overcrowded.
'To send people into the sea in a boat in that state is an act of murder.
'We arrested five people on human trafficking offences this morning.'
Another air ambulance was seen landing at the side of the beach in Wimereux
One of the helicopters was seen flying low over the beach at Wimereux this morning
Emergency vehicles were seen beside an ice cream shop on the beach at Wimereux in France this morning
An emergency SAMU air ambulance was one of three that responded to the tragedy
A police officer looks on in Wimereux, near Calais, after migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel
Rescue boats were also seen off the coast of northern France as emergency services searched for survivors
Emergency workers rushed to the sea in a bid to save migrants who got in trouble while trying to cross the Channel
Prefet Billant said the heavily overladen vessel set sail from a beach north of Wimereux at about 3am this morning but came to a halt with engine trouble shortly afterwards.
During this time some 47 people fell into the water, including the four-year-old girl.
However the heartless traffickers managed to get the boat's engine started again and continued their journey across the English Channel with 58 people on board.
The boat is believed to have completed its journey and arrived on the British shore at around lunchtime today.
Prefet Billant refused to offer comment on Britain's Rwanda deportation plan.
He said simply: 'My job is to stop the people traffickers and I will use every resource at my disposal to do so.'
The little girl's father was rescued by emergency services and taken to Wimereux beach, where he burst into tears and fell into the arms of refugee charity workers 'in a daze'.
Dany Patoux, from the Osmose 62 refugee charity, saw the father return to the beach. He said: 'We knew the little girl well. We have photos with her, with a big smile on her face, in the hope of a better life.
'But now, everything is ruined. Her father fell into our arms right away. He was crying, in a daze. He saw his little daughter die before his eyes.'
A member of the French Gendarmerie talks with a driver of a passing car in Wimereux, near Calais
French police stopped another boat (pictured) from leaving northern France today
It was one of four that French police stopped from launching this morning
The furious Mayor of Wimereux Jean-Luc Dubaele (pictured) said the latest tragedy was all the fault of the British
Officials said six 'lifeless bodies' were found this morning and taken to Wimereux beach, which is between Boulogne and Calais.
One person was resuscitated but five sadly died.
French police tried to stop the flimsy craft launching from the beach in the early hours of Tuesday.
Yet the French failed to stop the migrants and were faced with migrants holding long sticks and throwing flares and firecrackers.
Once the migrants had got into the boat, the French police stopped trying to prevent them leaving, the BBC reported.
The migrants got into difficulty when the dinghy struck a sandbank exposed by the retreating tide.
This sparked panic and caused people to stand up, which unbalanced the boat.
People started falling into the water before the boat capsized, 'flinging everybody in to the very cold sea,' a French maritime prefect said.
He said: 'Weather conditions were very calm, and hundreds of people were trying to get onto the boats at first light.
'Officers had already dispersed a number of them on Monday night, and confiscated nautical equipment including inflatable boats, outboard engines, life jackets and cans of fuel.'
Another overloaded dinghy was pictured in French waters after the incident this morning
Migrants, many of them in life jackets, were seen with their feet dangling in the water
They were escorted by French patrol boat Minck and met in the Channel by a UK Border Force ship
Despite the police operation, hundreds of men, women and children still managed to launch dinghies.
The source added: 'All the boats were overcrowded, clearly because the people smugglers who organised them wanted to make as much money as possible.
'There were more than 100 people on single boats, which is incredibly dangerous, and the reason they capsized — the boats just can't take the weight of all those people.
'There were lots of children on the boats, including a four-year-old girl who died.'
Last year, there were 67,337 asylum applications to the UK. Of those, 29,437 came from people who arrived in small boats. The Government claims the Rwanda scheme will act as a deterrent, however it only has the capacity to send 200 people a year to the East African country
The source said: 'Many others who were on the capsized boats were brought ashore unconscious.'
A criminal investigation into the deaths has been opened by the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor.
After the incident this morning, the Prime Minister said the 'tragic' incident reported in the Channel 'underscores' the need for the deterrent effect of the Rwanda plan.
The tragedy came just hours after Rishi Sunak's Rwanda Bill to deter migrants from making the perilous crossing was passed in Parliament.
Rishi Sunak vowed to let nothing 'stand in our way' today as he gears up to send Channel migrants to Rwanda within weeks after the Government's deportation plan was finally passed by Parliament.
Last year, there were 67,337 asylum applications to the UK. Of those, 29,437 came from people who arrived in small boats.
The Rwanda scheme's capacity is 200 people per year. It means if the scheme had been running last year, it would have deported less than 0.7 per cent of small boat migrants.
In terms of the cost of the journey per person, for the first 300 migrants sent to Rwanda, it will cost the Government £1.8million per head, Whitehall's official spending watchdog said.