140 migrants in single dinghy rescued in English Channel

Around 140 migrants aboard a single inflatable dinghy were rescued in UK waters on Sunday, after launching from the Bay of the Seine on the Normandy coast overnight. French rescue services shadowed the vessel for approximately ten hours before it reached British waters at lunchtime, where two RNLI lifeboats from Bembridge and Yarmouth met the passengers.

The French coastguard noted that the departure point was highly unusual — around 170 miles from the typical launch zones near Calais, making the crossing significantly longer and more dangerous. Officials said it was not safe to attempt to intercept the dinghy on open water.

The crossing came days after UK 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 boat carrying a record 230 people successfully completed the crossing.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government is bearing down on dangerous small boat crossings, noting that joint efforts have seen over 48,000 crossing attempts prevented and 1,100 boats and engines seized since the election. A payment-by-results deal with France was cited, putting 40% more officers on French beaches.

While the number of crossings over summer months has dropped to its lowest since 2019, smugglers appear to have adapted by loading more people onto fewer and larger vessels — so-called mega dinghies — in response to tighter policing along the usual routes.