Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing

Nearly 160 migrants were rescued after a small boat caught fire while attempting to cross the English Channel on Tuesday morning, in one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018.

"A small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard," the prefect's office in France's Pas-de-Calais region said, adding that no casualties had been reported.

French maritime authorities said the group had left the coastal village of Veules-les-Roses in Normandy on Monday.

A spokesman for the British coastguard said UK vessels and a lifeboat were assisting after "a vessel caught fire earlier this morning whilst in the French search and rescue region". The Royal National Lifeboat Institution charity said a "lifeboat launched at 6am today to an incident".

In recent weeks, witnesses in France have said they have seen dinghies larger than usual crossing the shipping lane, reporting that they appeared to be 12m long instead of the usual 8m or 10m.

French maritime authorities told AFP the average number of people piled onto these small boats has risen from 26 in 2021 to 65 since the start of the year.

France has long been a launchpad for migrants hoping to cross the Channel to reach Britain. Paying smugglers thousands of dollars, people often board overloaded rubber dinghies to make the dangerous and sometimes deadly journey across one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

More than 41,000 migrants landed on England's southern coast last year — the second-highest annual number since 2018.

So far this year, 14 people have died trying to cross the Channel, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources. At least 29 migrants lost their lives in the Channel last year, according to a similar AFP count.