French officials hand life jackets to migrants crossing Channel
Officials have been handing out the life-saving devices because people smugglers do not, according to maritime experts.
The jackets are then returned to the French once the migrants have been escorted to the mid-point of the Channel and are rescued by the British authorities, so that they can be re-used for future crossings.
It comes as a record number of migrants have crossed the Channel in the first three months of year. So far some 7,228 have reached the UK in 131 small boats, up 31 per cent on the 5,517 who arrived at the same point last year.
UK officials say the growing success of pan-European efforts to disrupt the supply chains of the people smugglers for boats, engines and equipment means they are cramming more migrants into lower-quality dinghies.
At least 82 people including 14 children died trying to cross the Channel in 2024, a record high, according to the International Organisation for Migration's Missing Migrants Project. In January a Syrian migrant was 'crushed to death' in a leaking dinghy, according to French authorities.
A spokesman for France's North Sea maritime prefecture said: 'Depending on the assessment of the situation on small boats, French maritime authorities can distribute life jackets. It is not systematic and depends on the assessment of the risks and benefits of the situation and the cooperation of the people being assisted.
'It is often in emergency situations, either due to the conditions of the vessel or weather conditions. It can be when some people wish to be rescued and others wish to continue in difficult conditions.
'British and French authorities work in an intelligent fashion to recover and recycle life jackets. There can be exchanges between boats or periodic handovers.'
Fisherman Matt Coker, owner of Coker Seafishing, told Times Radio that he suspected it was due to the people smugglers failing to provide life jackets. 'The French, they're giving them life jackets now because so many of them are not getting in the boats with life jackets. I suppose... they're trying to avoid another tragedy,' he said.
Mr Coker said he had witnessed more migrants crossing in the past six months. 'It seems to have gone back to what it was two or three years ago, which is, I mean, there seems to be lots of boats all at the same time coming on every possible day,' he said.
'Whereas before that, it did seem to… slow up to just a few boats a day and it was only when the weather was perfect. Now they seem to be leaving the beaches, I suppose, you know, more often.'
He said the French were giving migrants safe passage to the UK. 'The French are actually escorting them through the shipping lane to give them a safe passage. And they're only making half the journey now. So... I suppose it is safer, but it almost seems to me like it might be encouraging the problem as well,' he said.
'It's safer for you to cross the Channel now than it's ever been because you'll have an escort from when you leave the beach and you'll be given safe passage and you'll only have to make half the journey because the UK Border Force will be waiting on the border to pick you up, rather than waiting well within UK waters.'
More than 6,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to Britain so far in 2025.
The rate of migrant Channel crossings under Sir Keir Starmer had been higher than under any of his Conservative predecessors.
But just five people have been convicted of piloting small boats to Britain this year.
At least 119 dinghies have arrived in Britain from France in the past three months, with the numbers increasing amid warmer weather and calmer seas.
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