The French coastguard rescued scores of migrants from a small boat off the Calais coast suffering from engine failure, as another people reached the UK by crossing the English Channel. The JOF launched two rigid inflatable boats to help those on board and carry them to safety. The JOF rescued 68 migrants from the boat and dropped them off at the dock in Calais where they were taken care of by emergency services. The Maritime Prefect, who is the French government's representative at sea, issued a stark warning to any would-be migrants thinking of attempting a Channel crossing.
The rescue came as the Home Office confirmed that people from three boats were brought ashore to the UK on Friday. Enforcement officers escort migrants off a Border Force boat after encountering them crossing the English Channel.
This brings the total for the year so far to , which compares to by the same point last year, in and in A total of 36, people crossed the English Channel in , which was an increase of 25 per cent from the 29, who arrived in , according to the Home Office - but down by 20 per cent on the record 45, arrivals in On January 11 a Syrian migrant became the first UK-bound migrant of the new year to die in the English Channel after being 'crushed to death' in an overcrowded small boat. The unnamed man, who was in his 20s, was in a flimsy dinghy that was launched in the early hours of Saturday from a beach near Calais.
It was full of asylum seekers heading from France to England, but began to collapse in freezing cold seas and so turned back. A Home Office spokesman said: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice. In April , a criminal enquiry was also launched following the deaths of five migrants including a little girl around Wimereux - a town 30km south of Calais.
Migrants are often at huge risk due to the flimsiness of the craft deployed by people-smuggling gangs, who overload the boat. Pictured: Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel on July 18, A French policeman looks at a migrant wading to the shore after attempting to cross the English Channel to reach Great Britain on a smuggler's inflatable dinghy at Sangatte beach near Calais. Pictured: French police officers look at a body discovered near Calais on November 4, The worst tragedy of this kind came in November , when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK — the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
