Britain’s black market economy is to blame for the Channel migrant crisis, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin has claimed.

Mr Darmanin, in an extraordinary outburst, called for a UK-EU migration treaty to curb crossings in the wake of 12 deaths off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez on Tuesday.

And he said the UK was a place “where you can work without papers and where you have little chance of being expelled.”

A pregnant woman and six children were among those who lost their lives in the deadliest Channel crossing tragedy since 2021, when their boat was "ripped apart" and sank off the northern French coast of Cap Gris-Nez on Tuesday.

During a visit to emergency workers in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Mr Darmanin said the latest victims were "people from the Horn of Africa".

These Eritreans risked the notoriously perilous English Channel crossing “to join family, to work there sometimes in conditions that are not acceptable in France”, Mr Darmanin said.

Blasting Britain further, he claimed: “These people want to go to Great Britain, and it is not the tens of millions of euros that we negotiate each year with our British friends and who only pay a third of what we spend, that will put an end to illegal departures.”

And the French interior minister said a new migration pact is the only way to end the Channel crisis.

He said: “We have to absolutely re-establish some relations with our friends in the UK, and with the UK Government

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with the four interior ministers that visited the UK recently. And I think it’s really important that it’s the role of the government to negotiate …

“We need a treaty – a migration treaty between the UK and the European Union."

The latest cross-Channel disaster took place close to the French town of Wimereux, where the local Mayor has frequently argued that such tragedies are the fault of the British.

Jean-Luc Dubaele said in April: “Five dead in January, five dead in April. What are we waiting for?

“Why do the English welcome them? Why do they absolutely want to travel to England? These are the questions that need to be asked.'

“It is Britain that is responsible for the boats setting off across the English Channel and the deaths that occur in the sea.”

Sources in France have claimed the asylum seekers on the boat turned down the chance to be rescued minutes before the disaster.

Investigators have revealed that the Abeille Normandie – the Normandy Bee rescue vessel – took 15 people off the stricken boat soon after Mayday calls were put out by some on board.

A source said: “Fifteen people got on to the Abeille Normandie, saying they wanted to be rescued as soon as possible.

“The remaining 65 continued on their voyage, and capsized soon afterwards.”

It has also emerged that the dinghy had been modified to try to make it go faster in the sea.

Rigid supports were taken out of the bottom of the overcrowded boat, and this made it particularly unstable

Axel Baheu, the skipper of the French trawler Murex, described the horrific scene in the Channel as people tried to rescue those in the water.

Describing the first person pulled out of the sea, Mr Baheu told Le Monde: “He was already cold, his eyes were open and foam was coming out of his mouth, he had no pulse.”

Mr Baheu heard a phone ringing, saying: ‘It was probably someone calling to see if he was okay or not.’

Dozens of migrants continued to make the journey on Wednesday, with more people pictured being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, amid calm weather conditions at sea.

Home Office figures show 317 migrants made the journey in five boats on Tuesday, suggesting an average of around 63 people per boat.

This takes the provisional total number of migrants who have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel to 21,720 - 3% higher than this time last year.

Downing Street rejected calls for a new UK-EU pact.

A spokesman said: "We have no plans to be part of an EU scheme on asylum, but we will continue to work with European partners to shut down smuggling routes and smash those criminal gangs."

Angele Vettorello, from Utopia 56 - which supports displaced and homeless migrants in France, warned the crossings are “not going to stop.”

She added: "Even this morning we saw more than 200 people trying to cross and have been stopped (by police).

"We see it every month... every death at the border, the people don't stop crossing."

She said a lot of police were at the shoreline, with officers intervening overnight and in the morning.

Last week was "really busy" for crossings and there had been a "huge increase" in the number of people dying in the Channel this summer, Ms Vettorello said, adding: "We know a lot of people who were stopped to cross and were back to shore during those seven days.

"We received calls from people in distress in boats in the Channel, we received for example eight calls from eight different boats on Friday."