Coastguard ‘overloaded with migrant rescues' send SOS to fishermen
Coastguards issued an appeal for fishing boats to assist a yacht and kayaks in trouble in the Channel because all Border Force vessels and lifeboats were overloaded rescuing migrants.
The appeal was put out over the radio on Saturday as Border Force, the Coastguard, RNLI and French vessels dealt with an estimated 15 small boats packed with migrants attempting the perilous crossing.
The contingency move provided breathing space for rescue services to be deployed at a later point to the kayaks and the yacht, which had issued an alert as it was taking on water.
Saturday was expected to be a potential record day for 2025 after a week of bad weather, with initial estimates suggesting it could exceed the 828 migrants who crossed in one day earlier in May, the highest total so far this year.
Two patrol aircraft, four out of the five Border Force vessels, seven French vessels, including Abeille Normandie, Ridens, Oyapock, and a warship, and two lifeboats were deployed on Saturday morning as hundreds of migrants launched their dinghies.
Some 13,671 migrants have so far crossed the Channel this year, the highest number in the period since the first migrants arrived on small boats in 2018. It is 30 per cent up on last year.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has suggested that the number of crossings has surged because of the higher number of good weather 'red days' so far in 2025.
The Telegraph revealed on Friday that France has so far intercepted fewer than 40 per cent of Channel migrants this year, the lowest proportion since the first small boats arrived, despite a £480 million funding deal with Britain to help stop crossings.
Ministers believe that a series of legal changes in France and Germany will, however, stem the flow of migrants. The French have amended laws so police can stop boats at sea for the first time.
It will enable police to use their own boats in shallow waters to take on people-smugglers carrying migrants in overloaded vessels.
French ministers are also planning to restore the offence of an 'illegal stay' in France, which would allow the police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt a crossing. Currently, migrants who attempt to cross the Channel are only considered to have committed an offence when they launch the boat.
Germany – where many of the migrant boats are stored before being deployed to the French coast – is also tightening its law to make it easier to prosecute those helping to smuggle migrants to the UK.
Facilitating people-smuggling is not technically illegal in Germany if it is to a third country outside the EU which, following Brexit, includes the UK. Under the new agreement, Germany has pledged to make the activity a clear criminal offence.
A Home Office spokesman 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 and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
'That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage.
'Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders.'
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