ShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAndré Rhoden-PaulPA MediaJust over 41,000 people arrived in the UK by small boat in 2025Two migrants have died attempting to cross the English Channel, French authorities have said.
Six others were rescued, with one of them taken to hospital requiring urgent care, after migrants got into difficulty boarding a boat near Calais on Wednesday morning.
The French maritime prefecture said the small boat was seen heading towards the beach at Gravelines at around 09:30 local time, where 30 migrants were waiting to board.
It comes a day after the UK and France extended talks over renewing a deal to try and stop small boats trying to the cross the Channel.
Responders pulled eight people onto a rescue boat when they got into difficulty, but two of them died.
A French naval helicopter was also deployed to carry out a search of the area to make sure no one was left in the water, the French authority said.
At least 12 French police officers were present in the beach area at the time.
Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the two people who died had been "lost to our deadly border".
On Tuesday, the UK signed a two-month extension on a £476m deal made with France by the previous government for extra patrols to disrupt migrant smuggling gangs.
The agreement had been due to expire, but talks on renewing the deal were extended by two months to thrash out an agreement.
It means operational contracts will continue to be funded, costing the UK £16.2m.
A Home Office spokesperson claimed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was "driving a hard bargain".
The home secretary is understood to be pushing for the new arrangement to include performance-related clauses that would link funding to the proportion of boats intercepted by the French.
Under the current deal, nearly 700 law enforcement officers are on the ground patrolling beaches, using drones and buggies to stop people getting on boats.
The UK government claims the deal has prevented 42,000 illegal migrants getting on boats, although the overall number making the journey across the Channel has continued to increase.
Over the past three years, crossings in the Channel have increased, with 41,472 people arriving in the UK by small boat in 2025.
Between 1 January and 26 March 2026, a total of 4,441 people crossed the English Channel by small boat from France.
This is 33% lower than the number who had reached the UK by this point in 2025, which was 6,642, although weather conditions may have played a part in this, with rougher conditions in the Channel compared with the same period in 2025.
