At least 27 people drown in Channel tragedy after inflatable migrant boat sinks off French coast

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said five women were among the dead, one person had been rescued, and one is still missing. An initial toll said 31 people had died but the minister revised this number down to 27 late Wednesday.Four suspected traffickers accused of being directly linked to the doomed crossing had been arrested, Darmanin said, according to Agence France-Presse.The narrow waterway between Britain and France is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Refugees and migrants fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty in the world’s poorest or war torn countries risk the dangerous crossing, often in dinghies unfit for the voyage and at the mercy of people smugglers, hoping to claim asylum or economic opportunities in Britain. Darmanin said the migrants’ dinghy had deflated, and when rescuers had arrived it was “deflated like an inflatable garden pool,” according to Reuters”Those primarily responsible for this despicable situation are the smugglers, that is to say criminals who, for a few thousand euros, organize human trafficking from Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Asia and who then use these people to bring them to Belgium, the Netherlands, France, especially to cross the Channel and to go to Great Britain,” Darmanin said. British Prime Minister Johnson said he was “shocked and appalled, and deeply saddened by the loss of life at sea.” “My thoughts and sympathies are, first of all with the victims and their families, and it’s an appalling thing that they have suffered,” Johnson told reporters.”But I also want to say that this disaster underscores how dangerous it is to cross the Channel in this way. And it also shows how vital it is that we now step up our efforts to break the business model of the gangsters who are sending people to sea in this way, and that’s why it’s so important that we accelerate if we possibly can all the measures contained in our borders … so that we distinguish between people who come here legally, and people who come here illegally.”He added that the authorities would “leave no stone unturned to the business proposition of the human traffickers and the gangsters … who are literally getting away with murder.”Johnson said it was time for Britain, France and Europe to “step up” and work together. He was due to chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee in response to the tragedy, his spokesperson said.British Home Secretary Priti Patel said in a statement that the tragedy “serves as the starkest possible reminder of the dangers of these Channel crossings organized by ruthless criminal gangs.”She added: “We will continue to intensify all cooperation with France and other European partners to prevent migrants embarking on these deadly journeys.”Beth Gardiner-Smith, CEO of the NGO Safe Passage International, said the deaths could have been prevented and called for the British Home Secretary to resign.”More and more people are risking the freezing, frightening journey across the Channel in small, unstable boats since the government closed safe routes to the UK last year,” Gardiner-Smith said. “Choosing to play politics with people’s lives, the government has failed to prevent people risking the crossing and this is the result. The government must act now to save lives by opening safe routes.” On Monday, France’s Ministry of Interior announced it was sending equipment and vehicles worth over 11 million euros ($12.3 million) as part of an agreement with Britain, “to secure the coastal strip extending over more than 130 kilometers (80 miles), from Dunkirk to the Bay of Somme.”It added that “the police and gendarmes will have additional resources to carry out the mission of fighting illegal immigration.”Last week, 243 people were rescued in the English Channel as they tried to cross to the United Kingdom.CNN’s Amy Cassidy, Joseph Ataman, Cyril Vanier, Sarah Dean, Hamdi Alkhshali and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.