Around 150 migrants illegally crossed the Channel aboard the same boat on Thursday July 23, a new record according to a local manager of the French sea rescue company (SNSM), who mentions increasingly long canoes.
The SNSM station at Berck-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) intervened on Thursday at 6:25 a.m. to escort a boat in difficulty on its way to England with around 150 passengers on board, a record according to Jean-Marc Lamblin, boss of this station. This boat, although punctured when the exiles boarded, reached British waters, he explains.
During the day of Thursday, the British authorities recorded the arrival of three boats in their waters, with a total of 366 migrants on board according to the latest official figures communicated on Friday, or on average more than 120 people per boat.
The same day, an unidentified body was found on the beach of Berck-sur-Mer after the departure of an illegal boat, according to the prosecution.
“The open investigation should make it possible to establish whether this death is linked to the departure of a boat which had come, earlier, to pick up several people on Berck beach, near the place where the victim was found,” Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Cécile Gressier told AFP.
40% drop in illegal crossings over one year
Illegal Channel crossings fell by more than 40% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, while London is pushing the French authorities to be more firm at the border, including at sea, where international conventions do not allow intervention at the risk of human life.
According to the British Interior Ministry, French law enforcement agencies have carried out six interceptions of migrant boats at sea in the last two months.
According to Jean-Marc Lamblin, the smugglers “have further enlarged the boats” used to send candidates for exile to England. Thus, the boat escorted on Thursday was around 12 meters, compared to 8 or 10 meters usually.
Two weeks ago, a boat made the crossing with 128 people on board, already a record according to British media.
Without confirming the figure, a Home Office spokesperson said that “smuggling networks are taking more risks than ever, with the number of people they cram into unseaworthy boats increasing year on year”.
The number of arrivals currently stands at 13,007 since January 1 and around 200,000 since the start of Channel crossings by “small boats” in 2018.
