One person has died after a small boat sank while trying to cross the Channel overnight, French authorities said.
Sixty-two people were pulled from the water after the “overloaded” boat broke up, the Maritime Prefect of the Channel and the North Sea said.
The French assistance and rescue intervention tug (RIAS) Abeille Normandie recovered 50 people, while the RNLI recovered two people and the Border Force Ranger nine people. All those rescued were transferred to the Abeille.
A French Navy helicopter assisting in the search spotted an unconscious person in the water, French authorities said. They were pulled from the water by the RNLI crews but declared dead by the medical team onboard the French tug.
Among the survivors was a child and his mother who were suffering from hypothermia, who were airlifted to hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The others were taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer quay and taken care of by the land rescue services.
The French coastguard warned of the dangers of crossing the Channel, saying the stretch of water is one of the busiest in the world, with more than 600 merchant ships passing through every day.
More than 10 people are known to have died trying to cross the Channel so far in 2025 – after what is thought to have been the deadliest such year yet in 2024.
According to Home Office data, more than 10,000 people made the crossing between 1 January and 28 April – a 40% increase on the equivalent period in 2024. The government has announced measures designed to stop the crossings, mainly focusing on cracking down on people smugglers.
A Home Office spokesperson said this month: “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 and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
But for years, campaigners have stressed that it will be impossible to stop the boats without first making it possible for the people using them to arrive in the UK by regular means.
Last week, the co-leader of the Green party, Carla Denyer, said: “If there were safe routes for those seeking asylum to arrive via regular means, they would not be forced into the hands of criminal gangs. The government created such safe routes for people fleeing Ukraine. They need to offer the same to others fleeing perilous situations.”
The campaign group Care4Calais has said the government “refuses to provide safe routes, yet criminalises those who use the only routes left for them”.
