AFGHAN nationals were “possibly” among the four people who died in the Channel this month, an inquest has heard. 

Kent area coroner Katrina Hepburn, opening the inquest at County Hall in Maidstone on Friday, said the victims were still unidentified.

But a Kent Police report said it was possible two of them were from Afghanistan, while the other were Senegalese. 

The four were pronounced dead between 6.22am and 11.24am after a search-and-rescue operation was launched in response to reports of a boat in distress on December 14. 

Thirty-nine people were rescued. The police report continued: “The provisional cause of death is consistent with drowning.”

Mobile phones and paperwork were recovered from the scene but have been damaged by seawater, the coroner said.

The boat was described as “wholly unsuitable to make the crossing.”

Reports that Afghans may have been among the dead come amid concerns around barriers preventing Afghans accessing safe routes to Britain via the government’s resettlement schemes, which have been mired by delays and accusations that the criteria are too stringent.  

This has forced Afghans fleeing the Taliban to make dangerous journeys, campaigners have claimed. 

Refugee charity Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley said a “large proportion” of refugees staying in camps in Calais are from Afghanistan. 

She said: “98 per cent of their asylum claims are accepted, yet they are still losing their lives to claim asylum in the UK.

“If the government had offered safe passage to other refugees in Calais in a similar way to how it does for Ukrainians these lives would have been saved and there wouldn’t be four refugees missing.”

Ms Hepburn suspended proceedings until a later date amid an ongoing police investigation.