Around 140 migrants in a single dinghy have been rescued in the English Channel. The people on the inflatable vessel, which launched from the Normandy coast overnight, requested help in UK waters and were picked up by two RNLI boats, the French coastguard said. They will now be taken to shore in the UK. It comes days after Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron met to discuss how to “scale up” efforts to reduce small boat crossings.
In August a single small boat carrying a record 230 people successfully crossed the Channel. The dinghy launched in Bay of the Seine and was shadowed for around 10 hours by French rescue boats in case it got into difficulty. The French coastguard said it was not safe to attempt to stop the dinghy on water. It reached UK waters at lunchtime and the people on board were met by lifeboats from Bembridge and Yarmouth.
French authorities said it was unusual for the migrant boat to depart from the area – 170 miles away from the usual launches around Calais making the crossing to the UK significantly longer. Last year local officials told the BBC there has been an increase in people trying to depart from Normandy. In bilateral talks on Thursday, Burnham and Macron agreed they were making headway in reducing small boat crossings in the English Channel but now needed to go further. While the number of boat crossings over summer months has dropped to its lowest since 2019, smugglers appear to have started loading more people onto fewer, larger vessels dubbed “mega dinghies”.
It’s thought the people smugglers organising the crossings have been forced to go to much greater lengths to avoid detection following more robust policing in the Calais area. Between 1 January and 1 September 2026, a total of 16, 513 people crossed the English Channel by small boat from France. Downing Street says 45 extra police officers are being deployed to French beaches in a “surge team” to tackle larger dinghies with more people packed onto them. Between 1 January and 1 September 2026, a total of 16,513 people crossed the English Channel by small boat from France.
This was down by 43% on the same period the previous year. These crossings have become the most common way for people to be detected entering the UK illegally since 2020. Nearly all those who arrive by small boat claim asylum. Under international law, this means they are allowed to stay in the country while their asylum application is considered.
Small boat arrivals made up 40% of asylum applications between July 2025 to June 2026. Boats that arrived in the UK from 2 September 2025 to 1 September 2026 carried an average of 68 people. This has more than doubled since 2021. Experts say overcrowding in boats makes crossings riskier.
At least 84 people died while attempting to cross the Channel in 2024, according to the United Nations (UN). When looking at the scale of small boats crossings, the number of these arrivals is about 5% of the size of total immigration into the UK from January 2025 to December 2025. The government has pledged to “smash the gangs” behind these crossings in order to reduce the numbers. People from Eritrea accounted for 18% of all arrivals from July 2025 to June 2026.
In the latest figures covering January 2025 to December 2025, at least 2,335 people who arrived by small boat were found to be potential victims of human trafficking or other forms of modern slavery, according to the Home Office. Another 4,712 people were detected entering the UK without permission via other methods including hiding in vehicles, travelling on ferries or through airports from July 2025 to June 2026. This was down by 17% on the same period the previous year. There are also individuals who arrive legally, for example via a work or study visa, and then overstay their limit.
The total number of people who live in the UK illegally after arriving legally is not known. Channel smuggling gangs resort to ‘mega-dinghies’ as crackdown limits small boat supply Inside secret police warehouse as Germany targets small boats gangs Track UK’s latest migration numbers – net migration, visas, asylum and small boats
