The devastated father of a baby killed while crossing the English Channel in a small boat has told how his daughter slipped through his hands as people piled on top of him.

The overcrowded vessel started taking on water causing panic and leading to little Maryam Bahez drowning as she fell overboard just a few hundred metres from the French coast.

The family, Maryam’s parents and their two older sons, climbed into the dinghy in Wissant, France in a desperate bid to make the perilous journey to the UK.

The infant, who was just 40 days old, is understood to have been born on the journey through Europe after her family fled Iraqi Kurdistan.

Maryam was wrapped in a black bin bag in a hopeless bid to keep her dry, Sky News reported.

But her father Aras says they were barely 100 metres into the journey on Thursday night when the dinghy started to take on water.

"Our feet were in the water, we all told the [driver] to please turn around but he did not listen to anyone and just sailed," he told Sky News.

"Then the water got to my waist, my trousers were submerged, then the dinghy burst and I don't how it happened but everyone fell on top of each other, and on top of me and my little girl.

"She went into the water but I brought her up, then a few others fell on us and then she went into the water and I brought her up for the second time, then others fell on me and then she slipped from my hand, and fell in the water the third time, and I lost her."

A total of 65 people were rescued by French search and rescue teams after the boat encountered trouble off the coast of northern France.

At least 52 people have died so far this year attempting to cross the Channel in dangerously overloaded boats.

The vessel was discovered with many people on board, while others had already fallen into the water.

Four rescue ships and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene, according to the French maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea.

During the operation, the unconscious baby, now identified as Maryam, was pulled from the water and transferred to the Abeille Normandie, a rescue tug chartered by the French Navy.

The baby was later pronounced dead by a doctor.

The 65 rescued people, along with Maryam, were taken to the port in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Her dad says he will continue to try to get his wife and two children into the UK despite the horror of losing his daughter.

"I will never try the sea route again but I have come with the aim of getting to Britain so my children would have a future,” he added.

"So I can feed my children I want to work and raise my children like any other children."