Rishi Sunak vows to end asylum claims from small boat arrivals - BBC

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By Marie Jackson & Simon Jones

BBC News

Anyone arriving in the UK on a small boat will be prevented from claiming asylum, under new laws expected to be announced next week.

Ministers will have a duty to "detain and swiftly remove" anyone who comes to the UK through that route, said Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

The prime minister has already said that "stopping the boats" is one of his five priorities.

The British Red Cross charity called the plans "extremely concerning".

Ms Braverman is expected to introduce the new legislation on Tuesday.

Currently, asylum seekers have the right to remain in the country to have their case heard. Under new legislation, those who arrive in small boats will be prevented from claiming asylum in the UK, removed to Rwanda or a "safe third country" and banned from returning permanently.

• How is the UK stopping Channel crossings?
• How many people cross the Channel in small boats?

Rishi Sunak told the Mail on Sunday: "Make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay."

He is expected to travel to Paris for a UK-France summit on Friday. The meeting with President Emmanuel Macron will be the first UK-France summit since 2018.

It is thought the two politicians will discuss the small boats crisis.

Mr Sunak has pledged to "stop the boats once and for all" - a pledge he had previously made twice in his first major speech of 2023.

"Illegal migration is not fair on British taxpayers, it is not fair on those who come here legally and it is not right that criminal gangs should be allowed to continue their immoral trade. I am determined to deliver on my promise to stop the boats," he told the Mail on Sunday.

And speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Ms Braverman said "the only route to the UK will be a safe and legal route".

There are still many questions about how this new plan will work.

The Home Office says there are a number of "safe and legal" routes to the UK. However, some are only available to people from specific countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine, or for British National status holders in Hong Kong.

Other asylum routes only accept a limited number of refugees according to precise criteria.

The announcement comes after days where the news agenda has been dominated by leaked WhatsApp messages from Matt Hancock as well as Boris Johnson's Partygate investigation.

The British Red Cross said the plans would do little to stop people risking their lives to seek safety.

Another charity, Freedom from Torture, which provides therapy to asylum seekers, called them "vindictive and dysfunctional".

The government's pledge is not straightforward. No migrants have been sent to Rwanda and plans to do so are currently on hold. There is also no returns agreement in place with the EU.

Last year, the government announced a deal with Rwanda to send asylum seekers there on a one-way ticket.

However the plan has yet to get under way after it was met with fierce opposition from campaigners and legal interventions.

Opponents argued Rwanda was not a safe destination and the scheme broke human rights laws.

However, in December the High Court ruled the scheme did not breach the UN's Refugee Convention. That decision is expected to face further challenges in the courts.

Under the plan, asylum seekers may be granted refugee status to stay in Rwanda or seek asylum in a "safe third country".

The government says it will discourage others from crossing the English Channel but so far there is no evidence that has happened.

A total of 45,755 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain in 2022, according to government figures collated by the BBC.

This is the highest number since these figures began to be collected by the government in 2018.

The latest Home Office figures show 2,950 migrants have crossed the Channel already this year.

The asylum seekers coming to the UK are from a range of countries, including Albania, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

Most who come by boat claim asylum on arrival in the UK and, if their case is accepted, they can apply to remain in the UK.

However, asylum claims made on or after 28 June 2022 can be rejected if the applicant has a "connection to a safe third country", such as EU countries.

Related Topics

• UK immigration
• Suella Braverman
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Rishi Sunak
• Europe migrant crisis
• Migration

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2023-03-05 08:31:18Z
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Matt Hancock leaks lead to cover-up fears over ‘eat out to help out’ scheme - The Guardian

Rishi Sunak faces calls for an inquiry into whether Treasury officials buried or ignored evidence that his £849m “eat out to help out” scheme fuelled the spread of the pandemic.

Officials dismissed a Warwick University study in October 2020 that said Sunak’s initiative may have caused a significant rise in Covid-19 infections. The report estimated 8%-17% of detected new clusters could be linked to the scheme.

Despite the government categorically rejecting the findings, the publication of former health secretary Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages appears to confirm that there were concerns about the then chancellor’s scheme in summer 2020 driving an increase in infections.

In the leaked messages obtained by the Daily Telegraph, Hancock told the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, that he had “kept it out of news” that the initiative was spreading the virus. He said his department had informed the Treasury and was “protecting” officials.

Jonathan Portes, a professor in economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant at the Treasury, said: “It looks on the face of it that [the Treasury] was deliberately trying to conceal what the evidence was about eat out to help out.

“We need to know what exactly the Department of Health told the Treasury, what was said internally about the data and what the advice was to ministers.”

He said the evidence to date suggested there may have been a “cover-up” and the Treasury needed to publish all the relevant documents. He said it was “disgraceful” and “unprofessional” to dismiss the Warwick University paper, which was on a matter of significant public interest, and there should now be an inquiry.

The scheme, which was launched in August 2020, was one of Sunak’s measures when he was chancellor to support the economy as it reopened after lockdown. It offered a 50% discount, up to £10 per head, on meals and soft drinks on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Businesses could claim the money back on a weekly basis from HM Revenue and Customs.

A working paper published by Thiemo Fetzer, an economics professor at Warwick University, found the initiative was closely linked to an increase in new cases during August and into early September. The paper found the virus spread more rapidly in areas with lots of participating restaurants and said the scheme might have “public health costs that vastly outstrip its short-term economic benefits”.

Fetzer said on Saturday he had made a submission to the Covid-19 public inquiry and he considered the scheme should now be examined as part of the hearings. He said: “The second wave of the pandemic was seeded in the summer and eat out to help out contributed to that.

“It was only available on Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesday, so people shifted their dining patterns. It created crowded spaces.”

He said the Treasury had dismissed his work, but had not provided any substantial evidence that the scheme did not cause a rise in infections. “They did not do a rigorous analysis,” he said. In January 2021, the Treasury said its own analysis had shown that areas with a high take-up of the scheme had low subsequent Covid-19 cases. The Institute for Government said that analysis was “pretty thin” and did not engage properly with criticisms of the scheme.

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The concern in government that the scheme was spreading the pandemic is revealed in Hancock’s WhatsApp messages. On 24 August 2020, while the initiative was still running, he wrote to Case, saying: “We have had lots of feedback that [eat out to help out] is causing problems… I’ve kept it out of the news but it’s serious. So please please lets not allow the economic success of the scheme to lead to its extension.”

Hancock later referred to the scheme in another message in December 2020 as “eat out to help the virus get about”.

A government source said: “We’ve been over this so many times. Many European countries experienced an uptick in virus transmission at the exact same time as the UK, including those without similar hospitality support schemes.” Officials say that many European countries experienced an increase in infections at the same time, but did not introduce policies targeted at increasing demand in the hospitality sector.

They consider it is difficult to isolate reasons for transmission, but say it appears the spread of the infection was largely driven by private gatherings, household transmission and not following social distancing measures.

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2023-03-05 06:00:00Z
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Simon Schama urges UK Jews to condemn Israel’s ‘horrifying’ shift to far right - The Guardian

British Jews must speak out over the “complete disintegration of the political and social compact” that underpins the state of Israel, the historian Simon Schama has said.

His call comes amid mounting disquiet among Jews in the UK and the US at the threats to Israeli democracy, violent attacks on Palestinians and a police crackdown on Israeli protesters.

Next Sunday, Israelis living in the UK will take to the streets to voice their opposition to the actions of the most rightwing Israeli government in the country’s 75-year history.

Protests are also planned by expat Israelis and Jews in other countries in solidarity with huge demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against the government.

In a sign of the changing mood, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, considered to be a conservative and staunchly pro-Israel body, issued a rare statement condemning a call by a senior Israeli minister that a Palestinian town in the West Bank should be “wiped out” in response to the murder of two Israelis.

“We utterly condemn Bezalel Smotrich’s comments calling for the Israeli government to ‘erase’ a village which days ago was attacked by Israeli settlers. We hope that this and similar comments will be publicly repudiated by responsible voices in the governing coalition,” the board said.

The board’s statement was a reflection that British Jews across the political spectrum are deeply troubled by “dangerous extremists” in the Israeli government, said one insider.

Speaking to the Observer, Schama said that Israel was at risk of becoming a “nationalist theocracy” with the inclusion of ultra-religious, far-right parties in the coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Key government posts have been handed to extreme hardliners Itamar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich – both ideological settlers committed to Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

The government has begun moves to undermine judicial independence and expand Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

The army has failed to contain a surge of settler violence, and the police last week fired stun grenades and water cannon at peaceful protesters in Tel Aviv.

“This is of concern to Jewry all over the world,” said Schama. “It’s absolutely, utterly horrifying.” Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence – “a noble document, which promised equal civil rights to all religious and ethnic groups” – had disintegrated, he said. Jews must speak out, he added. To do so was “not a betrayal of Israel, it’s a passionate declaration of support for the enormous number of people [in Israel] who feel as anguished as we do. We should not be lily-livered about it”.

Margaret Hodge, the veteran Labour MP and parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said an “assault on democracy” combined with “vicious attacks on Palestinian rights” was creating a “dangerous moment” for Israel.

She had always been a “critical friend” of Israel, but said she and other British Jews must now be “more vocal. The voice of the Jewish diaspora must be stronger, we must exert what pressure we can to curtail the excesses of the Israeli government.”

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Anthony Julius, one of the UK’s most prominent Jewish lawyers, said the Israeli government incorporated “the worst features of the populist, anti-liberal democratic parties that operate in Europe and in America as well, but with a special kind of antinomian Jewish intensity”.

Sweeping reforms to give the government total control over the appointment of judges and to allow parliament to override supreme court rulings were “destructive”, he said in Haaretz newspaperlast month.

According to Rabbi Jonathan Romain, the “vast majority” of his congregation in Maidenhead, Berkshire, was “deeply worried” about what’s happening in Israel. “The extremist faction in the government is anti-gay, anti-women, anti-civil liberties, anti-pluralism, hostile to Palestinians,” Romain said. “The mood is shifting from British Jews being out-and-out supporters [of Israel] to being critical friends – and voicing that criticism publicly.”His constituents were “more worried about the direction of Israel than at any time previously”, he said.

Next weekend’s protest, under the banner “Defend Israel’s democracy”, is open to all expat Israelis “and all supporters of Israel and democracy”, the organisers said. Reuven Ziegler, a law professor at Reading University, who will be speaking at the protest, said: “The demonstrations are a very patriotic act because they are an attempt to save Israel from making substantive mistakes that would ultimately change its character. They are anything but hostile to the Israeli state.“Since this government was formed, it has given many reasons for people in the diaspora to find themselves alienated from it.

“In the past, faced with certain expressions of antisemitism, many Jews have felt the need to defend Israel, right or wrong. That sentiment may be weakening, but ultimately the blame for that lies squarely with the current government.”Hannah Weisfeld, the director of Yachad, a UK organisation that advocates for a political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said: “There is real disquiet in the community over Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. The settler attack on Hawara was quite a gamechanger.”

People, she said, were starting to understand there was “a connection between the undoing of democracy and settlers running wild in the West Bank.

“It’s very painful for British Jews, particularly those from an old-school Zionist background. Many have family in Israel who are telling them that a dictatorship is coming. We’re not quite at a tipping point yet, but I think we’ll get there.”

Six European countries, including the UK, on Saturday condemned recent Palestinian militant attacks that killed Israeli citizens in the occupied West Bank and called on Israel to halt expansion of settlements there. “We urge the Israeli government to reverse its recent decision to advance the construction of more than 7,000 settlement building units across the occupied West Bank and to legalise settlement outposts,” said the countries in a joint statement.

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2023-03-05 07:00:00Z
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Prince Harry says marijuana 'really helped' him in live interview with Gabor Mate - The Independent

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle getting kicked out of UK home

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Prince Harry has revealed in an interview with author Gabor Mate that marijuana “really helped” him mentally.

The Duke of Sussex, speaking during the livestreamed conversation on Saturday evening, said cocaine “did nothing” for him. He added: “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.”

He also said that some British soldiers were not “necessarily” supportive of military efforts in Afghanistan.

Dr Gabor Mate said he did not align with the West during the conflict. Harry responded: “One of the reasons why so many people in the United Kingdom were not supportive of our troops was because they assumed that everybody that was serving was for the war.

“But no, once you sign up, you do what you’re told to do.

“So there was a lot of us that didn’t necessarily agree or disagree, but you were doing what you were trained to do, you were doing what you were sent to do.”

It comes after the Harry and wife Meghan have been asked to leave Frogmore Cottage by King Charles.

Sources claimed that the couple are “not fighting” the decision, as they are said to be making arrangements to have their remaining belongings shipped to California.

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Prince Harry reveals drugs were a ‘comfort’ to help deal with trauma

Prince Harry has revealed that using marijuana and psychedelics helped him deal with trauma in his life, as he is diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) during a livestream interview.

The Duke of Sussex spoke to Dr Gabor Mate, a trauma expert, and they covered a wide-range of topics, including his mother’s death, drug use, his time in the army, and his relationship with other members of the Royal Family.

On using drugs, Prince Harry said: “(Cocaine) didn’t do anything for me, it was more a social thing and gave me a sense of belonging for sure, I think it probably also made me feel different to the way I was feeling, which was kind of the point.

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 22:33

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Prince Harry reveals how he handles his children’s ‘outbursts’

Prince Harry has shared some of his parenting strategies when raising his children and how he responds during their “outbursts”.

During a live streamed conversation on Saturday about personal healing with author Dr Gabor Maté, the Duke of Sussex spoke about his four-year-old son, Archie, and one-year-old daughter, Lilibet, whom he shares with wife Meghan Markle.

During the Q&A portion of the event, one event guest asked for advice on how to raise children to be “kind, emphatic, and humble humans”. In response, Harry said how important it is for children to feel “love” and be given the opportunity to “be themselves”.

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 22:30

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Prince Harry reveals drugs were a ‘comfort’ to help deal with trauma

Prince Harry has revealed that using marijuana and psychedelics helped him deal with trauma in his life, as he is diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) during a livestream interview.

The Duke of Sussex spoke to Dr Gabor Mate, a trauma expert, and they covered a wide-range of topics, including his mother’s death, drug use, his time in the army, and his relationship with other members of the Royal Family.

On using drugs, Prince Harry said: “(Cocaine) didn’t do anything for me, it was more a social thing and gave me a sense of belonging for sure, I think it probably also made me feel different to the way I was feeling, which was kind of the point.”

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 21:30

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Prince Harry reveals how lack of physical affection throughout childhood impacts how he raises his children

Prince Harry is speaking out about the lack of physical affection he received throughout his childhood and how it affects him as a father today.

On Saturday, the Duke of Sussex discussed his four-year-old son, Archie, and one-year-old daughter, Lilibet, whom he shares with wife Meghan Markle, during a live streamed conversation with Dr Gabor Maté. The conversation centred on mental health awareness and personal healing.

During the conversation, Maté pointed out that in Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, he wrote about the lack of hugs he received from members of the royal family. When asked how this family dynamic has impacted his parenting skills, the duke said it encouraged him be more affectionate with his children.

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 20:38

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Inside Royal Lodge: The 30-room mansion Prince Andrew may have to vacate for Frogmore Cottage

The Duke of York has resided in the Royal Lodge in Windsor Park for nearly 20 years, but reports suggest his time there may be coming to an end.

It is understood that the King has offered Andrew the keys to Frogmore Cottage after requesting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to vacate it.

Read everything you need to know about the Royal Lodge here:

Kate Ng4 March 2023 20:00

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Prince Harry diagnosed with ADD

Dr Gabor Mate diagnosed the Duke of Sussex with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) during their livestream conversation on Saturday night.

Dr Mate told Prince Harry that he had the condition after reading his book Spare.

The Duke of Sussex responded: “thanks for the free session”.

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 19:17

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Prince Harry left Royal Family because he felt ‘different’

Prince Harry said that he made the decision to leave The Firm as his felt “different” from the rest of his family.

The Duke of Sussex said: “People have said that my wife saved me, I was stuck in this world and she was from a different world and helped draw me out of that.

“But none of the elements of my life would have been possible without me seeing it for myself.”

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 19:11

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Prince Harry discusses use of psychedelics

Prince Harry has spoke of the benefits of using psychedelics and that it helped him deal with the trauma caused by his mother’s death.

His comments came after Dr Gabor Mate discussed the use of Ayahuasca with his patients.

The Duke of Sussex said: “It was the cleaning of the windshield, removal of life’s filters.

“It removed it all for me and brought me a sense of relaxation, release, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold onto for a period of time

“For me I started doing it recreationally and then started to realise how good it was for me. I would say it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and the pains of the past.”

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 19:03

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Rebel Wilson claims Meghan Markle is ‘not as cool’ as Prince Harry

Rebel Wilson has described the Duchess of Sussex as “not as cool” or “naturally warm” as her husband, the Duke of Sussex.

The Pitch Perfect star recalled her first encounter with the royal couple, which she said happened through a mutual friend who is a polo player.

Find out what she had to say below:

Kate Ng4 March 2023 19:00

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Therapy helped me overcome my mother’s death, says Duke of Sussex

The Duke of Sussex said that therapy helped him overcome the death of his mother when he was a child.

During the livestreamed conversation with author Dr Gabor Mate, the trauma specialist said that therapy was like “bursting a bubble.”

Prince Harry responded: “My awareness to my own story my own self was distorted, perhaps because of my environment and what it foes to you but also because of society.’

He added: “When I started to unpack 12 year-old Harry and when my mother died it was scary.

“I thought that when I went to therapy that it would cure me, and that I would lose whatever I had left of my mother... it was the opposite - I turned into what I thought should be sadness to show that I missed her into knowing that she would want me to be happy.”

Joe Middleton4 March 2023 18:55

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2023-03-04 20:42:58Z
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Pressure grows for Covid inquiry to be fast-tracked after Hancock WhatsApp leak - The Guardian

Ministers face calls to “fast-track” the public inquiry into the pandemic as official documents show civil servants are preparing for it to run for five years or longer.

The Labour party has warned that a “painfully slow” Covid inquiry increases the risk of ministers not being properly held to account for their decisions. Labour leader Keir Starmer last week called for it to report by the end of the year.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak also faces calls from Labour to ensure that no key evidence is erased, including ministerial communications on WhatsApp and private email accounts.

The government is under mounting pressure over its handling of the pandemic after the leaking of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages linked to Matt Hancock’s time as health secretary. Hancock has described the leaking of the messages by journalist Isabel Oakeshott as a “massive betrayal”.

The Covid-19 inquiry is chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett and has already instructed 62 barristers. It will begin hearing evidence on 13 June on pandemic preparedness, which is the first “module” of the investigation.

Analysis by Tussell, a firm that monitors government outsourcing, has revealed the cost of 37 public contracts involved in the inquiry has now reached £113m. The figures include indirect costs such as departmental document disclosure, legal support and information technology services. The direct costs of the inquiry to January 2023 is just under £15m, according to an inquiry spokesperson.

The inquiry has not given a timeframe for its investigations, but the contracts awarded in connection with it suggest it may run for years.

The largest was awarded last May to litigation support firm Legastat for disclosure services to the inquiry from the Department of Health and Social Care. The £11.8m contract states a “disclosure database” must be maintained to prepare for hearings until 31 May 2027. There is an option to extend the contract for a further two years.

Charles Arrand, a partner at the legal firm Shoosmiths, said that given the wide scope of the inquiry, it might well go beyond 2027. “I have respect for Keir Starmer as a lawyer but it is wishful thinking and highly unrealistic to think there will be a final report by the end of this year,” he said.

“The pandemic and its impact reached into every corner of society. It will take time to conduct a thorough inquiry. There is no point in spending all this money unless the public has confidence in the inquiry and its conclusions.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said Sunak should take all necessary steps to facilitate the publication of an initial report by the end of the year. She also called for him to prevent any destruction of relevant communications and ensure ministers hand over every single message relevant to the inquiry.

Lord Bethell, a former health minister, has already admitted inadvertently deleting WhatsApp messages relating to how personal protection equipment contracts were awarded. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme last week: “I had an issue with capacity on my phone … and I clumsily deleted them. In retrospect, I regret doing that.”

Rayner said: “Rishi Sunak must get a grip and take steps to prevent the destruction of evidence by government ministers. If evidence is destroyed, justice may be denied.

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“The prime minister must take personal responsibility to ensure the public have confidence that ministers will be held to account and families get the answers they deserve. If he fails to act, he risks being complicit in a cover-up.

“While other countries’ Covid inquiries have already concluded, unforgivable delays caused by Tory ministers dragging their heels have stymied the already painfully slow process of getting to the truth.” At a preliminary inquiry hearing on Wednesday, Baroness Hallett said the inquiry would not be a “whitewash”. She also said it would not “drag on for decades” and a decision had already been made to issue interim reports.

An inquiry spokesperson said: “This public inquiry has been set up to investigate extensive terms of reference and that will take time, which the chair made no apology about last year when the inquiry was officially launched.”

Three modules have been announced to date (resilience and preparedness; core UK decision making, and impact of Covid-19 on UK healthcare), with further investigations to be announced in the summer.

The spokesperson said the inquiry had not entered into a contract with Legastat and could not comment on the timeframe given in the document.

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2023-03-04 22:31:00Z
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UK Weather: Snow and ice expected in Scotland and north of England - BBC

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By James FitzGerald

BBC News

Arctic air is expected to bring snow, ice and cold winds to parts of the UK early next week.

A Met Office yellow warning is in force for much of northern and eastern Scotland, as well as north-east England and North Yorkshire, throughout Monday.

This means severe weather is possible, and people should prepare for weather to affect travel and other activities.

The Met Office has issued a separate warning for Tuesday that covers a wider area, including more of Yorkshire.

Met Office meteorologist Craig Snell said that, in Scotland, cold winds could make it feel like "some of the coldest weather we've had since the beginning of December".

He said up to 10cm (4in) of snow could fall on high ground on each day, with up to 5cm possible in low-lying regions.

Areas covered by Monday's warning include Dundee and Aberdeen, the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland, and a corridor of north-east England that extends to Yorkshire.

The Met Office said snow showers could cause delays on roads in these places, as well as rail and plane cancellations. It also warned of the risk of slips and falls on icy surfaces.

There was "slight chance" that rural communities could be cut off, it said, adding that cuts to power and phone services were possible.

By Tuesday, "frequent" snow showers are expected in the same region - with the warning area extended to Strathclyde, more of Yorkshire and the Humber, and the East Midlands.

BBC forecaster Louise Lear said it was "not unusual" for this kind of weather to appear in the transition from winter to spring, because "the pendulum can swing from one way to the other".

There was a "great deal of uncertainty" as to what would happen mid-week, she said, with more snow possible - although cold conditions should not last beyond the end of the week.

Earlier alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency also remain in place. These warn that all of England is likely to experience cold weather for much of next week.

The agency said this could have a "serious impact" on the health of those who are vulnerable to cold weather, and urged people to check on relatives.

It advised over-65s, or those with pre-existing medical conditions, to heat their homes to at least 18C.

Related Topics

• Met Office
• Snow
• Severe weather

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2023-03-04 17:03:00Z
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Dover: Three lifeboats launched after fire breaks out on ferry - BBC

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By Bob Dale

BBC News

Three lifeboats from Kent and a French salvage tug were launched after a fire broke out on a ferry in the Channel.

The lifeboats from Dover, Ramsgate and Dungeness were sent to the vessel - the Isle of Innisfree, owned by Irish Ferries - sailing from Dover to Calais.

The company said the fire, which was in the engine room, had been contained.

The ship, carrying 94 passengers and 89 crew, has been towed by a tug towards Calais with the priority now to get those on board to shore.

Passengers booked on imminent Isle of Innisfree sailings will be transferred to alternative sailings, Irish Ferries said.

It sincerely apologised to all of its passengers for the disruption to their journeys.

A statement from the firm said: "Crews train regularly to deal with incidents at sea, and the company has put its training into action and the fire has been extinguished."

Irish Ferries later added that once the boat arrives in Calais, it will launch a "full investigation into the incident in conjunction with the relevant authorities".

HM Coastguard said: "The vessel has confirmed that the fire has been extinguished but it is experiencing technical issues.

"All passengers and crew are accounted for and no injuries have been reported."

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Related Topics

• English Channel
• Dover
• Calais

Related Internet Links

• Maritime and Coastguard Agency

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