The French coastguard has rescued 68 migrants from a small boat off the Calais coast which was suffering engine failure, as another 183 people reach the UK by crossing the English Channel.
The Maritime Prefect confirmed that the French coastguard patrol boat Jacques Oudart Fourmentin (JOF) located the boat in the area off the old Walde lighthouse near Calais on Friday before it launched two rigid inflatable boats to help those on board.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover (Gareth Fuller/PA)
A spokesman said: “The JOF then retrieves on board 68 migrants present on the boat and then drops them off at the dock in Calais where they are taken care of by the land rescue services at the end of the day.”
He added: “The Maritime Prefect of the English Channel and the North Sea warns anyone who plans to cross the English Channel about the risks involved.
“This maritime sector is one of the busiest areas in the world, with more than 600 merchant ships transiting there per day and weather conditions are often difficult (120 days of wind greater than or equal to force 7 on average per year for example), it is therefore a particularly dangerous sector, especially in the middle of winter for precarious and overloaded boats.”
The rescue came as the Home Office confirmed that 183 people from three boats were brought ashore to the UK on Friday.
This brings the total for the year so far to 890, which compares to 621 by the same point last year, 150 in 2023 and 771 in 2022.
A total of 36,816 people crossed the English Channel in 2024, which was an increase of 25% from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to the Home Office – but down by 20% on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”