157 migrants rescued after their boat catches fire in the English Channel
British and French ships rescued 157 migrants after their boat caught fire during an attempt to cross the English Channel on Tuesday, according to authorities in both countries, marking the largest rescue operation of its kind since data collection on such incidents began in 2018.
French authorities in the Pas-de-Calais department reported that “fire broke out inside a small boat at the boundary between French and British waters, forcing passengers to jump into the sea” on Tuesday morning, noting that no injuries or deaths were recorded.
French maritime authorities stated that the migrants had departed on Monday from the coastal village of Folkestone in the Normandy region.
For his part, a spokesperson for the UK Coast Guard confirmed that British ships and a rescue boat participated in relief operations following “the ignition of a boat early Tuesday morning while it was within the French search and rescue zone.”
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution also announced that “a lifeboat was dispatched to respond to the incident at 6:00 a.m. today.”
In recent weeks, witnesses in France reported seeing rubber boats larger than usual crossing the shipping lane, estimating their length at 12 meters, whereas such boats typically measure between 8 and 10 meters.
French maritime authorities told Agence France-Presse that the average number of people crammed into these small boats has risen from 26 in 2021 to 65 since the beginning of this year, as France serves as a departure point for migrants hoping to cross the English Channel to reach Britain.
These migrants often pay thousands of dollars to human smugglers before boarding overcrowded rubber boats and embarking on a dangerous, and sometimes fatal, journey through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
More than 41,000 migrants arrived on the south coast of England last year, the second-highest annual figure recorded since 2018.
So far, 14 people have died while attempting to cross the English Channel this year, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources, compared to 29 migrants last year, according to a similar count.
