Four people have died after a small boat carrying migrants attempting to reach Britain sank in the Channel, French local authorities confirmed on Thursday, as a search and rescue operation continues.
Officials in Calais said in a statement: “A taxi-boat sinking occurred today.
“The situation is still being assessed and remains subject to change.”
Traffickers have increasingly used motorised dinghies, known as ‘taxi-boats’, along the northern French and Belgian coastlines to pick up migrants over the past year.
About 2,200 migrants crossed the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to Britain in the first two months of 2026.
Around 41,500 people made the crossing in 2025, according to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory.
