A total of 289 people traveling in six boats were picked up by UK authorities and brought to Dover in southern England on Wednesday (December 4).

Among the migrants were children dressed in woolly hats and coats, who were pictured being carried after they arrived in Dover. Adults were also rugged up against the cold, the PA news agency reported.

They were the first arrivals since Sunday, when 122 people made the crossing. Prior to Sunday, no small boats reached the UK for two weeks as weather conditions remained very bad.

Overall this year, 33,973 have survived the journey from France and arrived in the UK, up from just over 29,000 in 2023.

So far in 2024, 72 people are known to have died attempting the Channel crossing, according to the French interior ministry.

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French navy rescues 85 migrants

At least 85 migrants who set out for the UK on Wednesday did not succeed, according to French maritime authorities.

In two incidents, the migrants were rescued by the French navy from dinghies that had got into difficulty.

One boat was carrying 80 people when it hit a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais region, the Channel and North Sea maritime prefecture said in a statement. The group raised the alarm and the migrants were picked up by a French navy vessel. The prefecture added that the small boat had also been spotted on the border surveillance camera system.

The navy also picked up five people from another boat in the Wimereux region who asked for assistance. The remainder of those on the boat continued on their way, the prefecture said. French authorities do not forcibly intervene in crossings because of the danger of people falling overboard or being injured.

All 85 migrants were brought back to land at Boulogne-sur-Mer and attended to by emergency services and border police according to normal procedure.

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Targeting smugglers

The use of dinghies to smuggle undocumented migrants to the UK has been increasing since 2019. In 2021, it overtook the practice of hiding people in the back of lorries, AFP reports.

French, British and other European countries are increasing their efforts to tackle the organized gangs responsible for ferrying irregular migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere.

In Germany on Wednesday, police carried out pre-dawn raids targeting an alleged Syrian and Iraqi-Kurdish criminal network accused of smuggling migrants by boat from France to Britain.

With AFP, dpa

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