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Migrants have been crossing the Channel despite thunderstorms and high winds

A small-boat migrant has died and over 70 have been rescued after a desperate attempt to cross the Channel.

The boat, which was carrying more than 110 people, was being monitored by a rescue vessel in the Gravelines area overnight from Thursday to Friday, which picked up the migrants after they called for help, the French coastguard confirmed.

Upon arrival, the coastguard found one migrant requiring CPR, with a rescue helicopter dispatched, but the migrant was pronounced dead.

Three others were found injured, including another who required urgent medical care, according to a statement from the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.

It comes as migrants were still attempting to cross the Channel on Friday despite bad weather.

The latest arrivals take the total number who have crossed so far, this year, to around 16,500.

Small boat crossings continued in the Channel, despite heavy thunderstorms and increasingly strong winds making conditions treacherous.

The 16,500 figure is more than 40 per cent lower than at the same point last year, when more than 41,000 people had crossed by the end of 2025.

New figures released on Thursday also shed light on the backgrounds of those arriving in Britain via small boats, with Eritrean, Sudanese, Afghan, Somali and Iranian nationals making up the five most common nationalities.

The figures showed that 86,000 asylum claims were made in the UK in the 12 months to June 2026, a 21 per cent drop on the previous year.

Around 90 per cent of illegal entries are made by small boat migrants, according to the Home Office.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "A little over two years into office and the asylum backlog is down, the number of asylum seekers in hotels is falling, illegal working arrests are at record levels, and deportations and returns are up markedly.

"Small boats numbers are also now falling, but we are not complacent and there is more we must do.

"That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes.

"This government is restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system."

Rob Bate, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, told GB News: "It’s really distressing to see the lackadaisical approach of the Labour frontbench and the howls of execration from the Labour backbench on any suggestion of actually, this is not a suitable future for our country."

Mr Bates pointed to estimates of the potential cost of settlement for migrants, saying: “Even the Home Office’s conservative estimates suggest a £10billion, or up to several hundred billion pounds.”

Mr Bates said that the fiscal and social costs of the “Boriswave” could become increasingly apparent as more migrants become eligible for settlement.

“The fiscal costs, the social costs of the Boriswave — that period of hyper mass migration — we saw where the skills threshold, the salary threshold for individuals coming into Britain, was dramatically reduced,” he said.

“That is now starting to crash land onto the beach of the British welfare state.”