Coastguard resources 'stretched thin' by migrant rescues as fishing boats urged to help yacht in trouble
31 May 2025, 20:26 | Updated: 1 June 2025, 07:00
Fishing boats were forced to step in to assist yacht and kayaks in trouble in the English Channel, as the coastguard was left stretched to the limit due to migrant rescues.
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The coastguard had to issue an urgent appeal for the help of fishing boats due to being occupied rescuing migrants.
Fishing boats have been called upon to assist a yacht and kayaks in trouble, with 'all' Border Force vessels and lifeboats reportedly engaged on a record day for Channel crossings.
The appeal was made on Saturday morning as Border Force, coastguard, RNLI and several French vessels dealt with an estimated 18 small boats holding migrants attempting to cross the Channel.
The ships involved include two patrol craft, four Border Force vessels, seven French vessels, a warship and two lifeboats.
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At least seven of the dinghies, each holding about 50 people, left the coast of Gravelines, a French commune east of Calais, just after 5am.
Men, women and children waded waist-high into the chilly water wearing jeans, fleeces and fluorescent orange lifejackets.
Later in the day, the yacht had issued an alert when it started taking on water, which prompted the Coastguard to issue an appeal for help on the radio.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, estimated more than 1,000 immigrants crossed the channel in a single day.
He said: “This is a day of shame for the Labour Government. Over 1,000 illegal immigrants in a single day, boats flooding the Channel, Border Force stretched beyond breaking point, and even fishing vessels drafted in because our maritime rescue services are overwhelmed."
On Thursday, Home Office figures revealed that France is intercepting fewer Channel migrants than at any time in the past, despite a £480 million deal with Britain to stop the crossings.
This year, French police stopped 8,347 asylum seekers from reaching the UK in small boats, while 13,167 have successfully made the journey.
Mr Philp continued: “A nation reduced to chaos on the high seas while Keir Starmer hides behind platitudes and process. Labour has completely lost control of our borders.
“Their pledge to smash gangs in tatters. They scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it even began, and now the boats won’t stop coming.
"So far, this is already the worst year on record. Labour have failed on every front, and they should hang their heads in shame.”
The total number of migrants to leave the French coast in 2025 is now more than 14,600, up more than 30 per cent on the same point last year and the highest total for the first five months of a year since the first boats crossed in 2018.
The record for the highest number of people arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel in small boats in a single day is 1,305 people on Sept 3 2022.
