More than 170 migrants were rescued from a blazing “mega dinghy” in the English Channel as asylum seekers are taking increasingly dangerous risks to try to reach Britain, The i Paper has been told.
Efforts to clamp down on small boat crossings are having an impact, with Home Office data showing crossings so far this year are down around 43 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.
But tactics to prevent people making the dangerous journey has resulted in some taking “impossible” risks, including hundreds of people at a time loading into enormous “mega dinghies” that measure longer than a double-decker bus.
Shorts
Rescue specialists operating in the Channel have long observed a trend for smuggling gangs to use ever larger boats to carry migrants to the English coast.
