A total of 209 people were intercepted on four different boats and brought to England on Sunday (November 10), while 572 migrants were rescued from nine overcrowded, unseaworthy boats on Saturday and brought to British shores.

This year is currently on track to be the year with the second greatest number of irregular migrant arrivals in England through small boat crossings in recent history, after 2022. So far this year, 32,900 people migrants have crossed to southern England. Even though the weather is getting rougher, departures from France and arrivals in the UK have been up recently – October saw the largest number of arrivals this year (more than 5,400), and November is on track to surpass it (more than 2,200 by November 10).

More deaths in the Channel

The route is also becoming more deadly for migrants – more and more people are dying in attempts to cross the waters from France to the UK.

Part of the reason for the increasing death toll is that smugglers are increasingly overcrowding the boats. The latest numbers from this weekend show just that: An average of 60 passengers were crammed onto the small boats that made it from France across the Channel – far more than the dinghies typically used by smugglers are built for, and far than more smugglers let onto the boats a few years ago.

The UN migration agency has recorded at least 70 deaths in connection to the Channel route, 49 of which were drownings. The actual number of deaths could be much greater – some people go missing and are never found.

Many migrants searching for missing relatives

A young Syrian who survived a shipwreck in the Channel recently told InfoMigrants about the struggle of not knowing what happened to his father.

"I looked everywhere for my father in the evening after waking up. I asked everyone: hospitals, police stations, associations but no one had seen him," 20-year-old Osama told InfoMigrants in Calais on the French coast.

The two had both been on a small boat that started sinking shortly after they left the French shore; Osama was among the 45 people rescued; his father was not. Three dead bodies were recovered, but his dad was not among them. Now, every time a dead body is recovered in the Channel, he fears it could be his father. So far, that has not been the case.