68 migrants rescued from English Channel as boat suffers engine failure
Another 183 people reached the UK in small boats over the course of Friday
French authorities have confirmed they have rescued 68 migrants as they attempted to cross the English Channel.
The Maritime Prefect said the migrants had been travelling in a small boat off the coast of Calais when the boat they were travelling in suffered engine failure.
Authorities said that patrol boats had spotted the small boat close to the Walde lighthouse on Friday (January 17th), before launching two inflatable dinghies to rescue those on board.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Maritime Prefect said: "We retrieved on board 68 migrants present on the boat and then dropped them off at the dock in Calais where they are taken care of by the land rescue services at the end of the day."
He added: "The Maritime Prefect of the English Channel and the North Sea warns anyone who plans to cross the English Channel about the risks involved.
"This maritime sector is one of the busiest areas in the world, with more than 600 merchant ships transiting there per day and weather conditions are often difficult (120 days of wind greater than or equal to force 7 on average per year for example), it is therefore a particularly dangerous sector, especially in the middle of winter for precarious and overloaded boats."
Currently, 890 migrants have managed to successfully cross the channel so far this year, with 183 being brought ashore by the UK on Friday alone.
This number is particularly high compared to previous years, with 621 migrants having crossed by the same time last year.
In total, nearly 37,000 people crossed the English Channel from France to the UK in 2024, an increase of 25% compared to the previous years' figures.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "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.
"We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice."