Three Migrants Die and Dozens Injured After Channel Dinghy Capsizes Near Calais

Three migrants, including a child and two women, died Monday when an inflatable boat carrying about 105 people capsized off Wissant, near Calais, while attempting to cross the English Channel to Britain. Dozens were reported injured, and French maritime authorities sent rescue crews to search for and assist people in the water. The deaths follow other fatal crossing incidents and bring the reported toll in the Channel this year to at least 24. The crossing took place amid a recent rise in attempts, with calm weather and sea conditions facilitating departures from northern France.
The Pas-de-Calais prefecture described the vessel as a “water taxi”: it reportedly arrived relatively empty from an inland waterway before picking up passengers at Wissant. Six rescue boats were still searching around the scene at 10:30 a.m. local time.
French prosecutors have opened criminal inquiries into the recent fatal crossing incidents, with judicial police investigating.
UK Home Office figures cited in reports showed 781 migrants arrived in Britain on the previous Wednesday—the highest single-day total reported so far that year—and 18,565 had arrived by this route since January, more than 40% fewer than in the same period in 2025.
Reports also described two recent “uncontrolled landings,” in which boats reached the UK without being intercepted, and a dinghy voyage from near Bayeux that lasted a reported 38 hours before passengers were picked up by RNLI lifeboats and transferred to a Border Force cutter.
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