The number of migrants who died while attempting to cross the Channel soared after a major UK-France deal to stop illegal crossings, shocking new analysis shows.
Seventeen people died or went missing in six fatal incidents in the final four months of 2023 – shortly after then-prime minister Rishi Sunak agreed a £460m pact with French president Emmanuel Macron to stop small boat migration.
The following year, 83 people were recorded dead or missing in 22 incidents – the deadliest year on record, figures compiled by Centre for Sociodigital Futures at the University of Bristol and Swiss research agency Border Forensics show. Another 29 died or went missing in 20 fatal incidents in 2025, researchers say.
The deal came with a big boost in funding, which allowed the French to step up the policing of the Channel. Charities working in northern France reported a cultural shift within French law enforcement as police became more aggressive and were pushed to act more decisively to justify the UK funds.
Dinghies also became even more overcrowded, with more than 100 people crammed onto boats in some cases, the report from the University of Bristol and Border Forensics found. With a surge in officers, people smugglers have resorted to dangerous tactics, such as picking up people from the water and setting off from points further along the coast.
The figures, from 2019 to 2025, suggest that more people making journeys on small boats across the Channel does not lead to more deaths. In 2022, the record year when more than 45,000 people crossed, seven people were reported dead or missing, the report, titled “How stopping the boats kills” said.
Travis Van Isacker, research fellow at the Centre for Sociodigital Futures, said that “these distinct but entangled border policing practices have had the cumulative effect of creating more dangerous circumstances for migrants”.
He added: “They have shown state policies to prevent small boat crossings as being a clear driver in the increased number of deaths amongst migrants in the Channel.”
Mr Sunak’s reset summit with Mr Macron in Spring 2023 agreed UK funding until April this year. The UK and France are currently negotiating the next three years of funding at the moment, with a delegation of British officials in Paris this week.
The deaths that have occurred since 2023 have happened close to French shores and often just off the beaches. In September 2023, Wudase, a 24-year-old Eritrean woman, was the first person killed inside of a dinghy, crushed under the weight of the other passengers.
She died when around 80 people attempted to board a dinghy departing from Bleriot-Plage, close to Calais. She had gotten onto the dinghy early and was placed in the middle, but was asphyxiated as more and more people climbed in, the report said.
Greater surveillance on the beaches and restrictions on purchasing inflatable kayaks has also meant it is harder to launch independent journeys across the Channel, with numbers of these crossings dropping in 2024, academics said.
This has led migrants, who previously would have attempted solo crossings because they can’t afford to pay smugglers, to rush the dinghies at the last minute in an attempt to squeeze onto the already overcrowded vessels. This allegedly happened when Wudase was killed.
With the dinghies overcrowded and of poor quality, they also tend to fail earlier in the journey, researchers found. Data from the Home Office shows an average of 71 people in each boat in the winter months last year, with the border security commander Martin Hewitt telling MPs that 125 people were recorded on one such boat.
The number of French police patrols has risen over the past five years, with 1,200 security personnel reportedly deployable daily. Police pressure has also led to the emergence of “taxi boats”, which pick up migrants from water just off shore, and are more dangerous than launching dinghies from beaches.
French police have been documented entering the water to pierce boats which are afloat, and as of 2026 French maritime can now intercept the “taxi boat” dinghies at sea before migrants have boarded.
Tony Smith, former director general of the Border Force, told The Independent: “From what I see, the main reason for the drownings is because the vessels are overcrowded. They are already very low in the water, a big wave could easily tip it over, the lifejackets are not fit for purpose, and so the bigger risk is an overcrowded dinghy, pushing off from a French beach, and people going overboard.
“That’s why I think most of the deaths are happening close to the French shoreline, and not when they get 12 miles out.”
He added: “As far as the smugglers are concerned, the bigger the boat the more money, because the more people they can get in it. It’s become very sophisticated and the smugglers are able to procure bigger vessels. We are up against a very sophisticated international organised crime business.
“They are constantly moving their operations, they are even going up to Belgium now and trying to launch from there. They are adept at being flexible along a long coastline, which makes the job of the French even more difficult.”
Mr Smith suggested using floating barriers to prevent dinghies travelling up the inland waterways and the formation of joint maritime patrols between the UK and the French. He said: “We have not come to an agreement with France about how to deal with this. There’s no reason why we couldn’t have joint patrols. This is going to be an ongoing problem unless we get agreement.”
The data for those dead and missing combined official numbers with those collected by migrants’ rights associations and activists documenting violence at the UK’s borders. Researchers were able to locate where deaths took place, noticing a trend of deadly incidents happening much closer to the French shore in recent years.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Crossing the Channel on a small boat is never safe and each death is a tragedy. We are tackling international immigration crime and working with France to bear down on small boat crossings to save lives.
“This government has set out sweeping reforms to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to take the perilous journey across the channel.”
The French interior ministry has been contacted for comment.
