French coastguard says 63 people were rescued and returned to Boulogne-sur-Mer after trying to sail to Britain.

At least four people have died while attempting to cross the English Channel from France to Britain, according to the French coastguard.

Their inflatable boat capsized off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France at about 4:30am (02:30 GMT), a coastguard spokesperson said on Friday.

Sixty-three people were rescued in an operation involving navy vessels, a fishing boat and a navy helicopter.

They were returned to Boulogne-sur-Mer and attended to by emergency services and provided temporary shelter.

The prefecture responsible for the north of France said a French Navy patrol boat spotted the overcrowded vessel early on Friday as it deflated off the coast. Many people were in the water, the statement said.

Thousands of people arrive in Britain each year on small boats, which are usually flimsy inflatable dinghies.

The United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government announced plans this week to deal with the influx of small boats crossing from France through the dangerous waters after scrapping the former Conservative government’s Rwanda deportation plan.

The plan, pushed by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, was set up to dissuade migrants and asylum seekers from arriving in the UK on small boats from France. Under the contentious policy, migrants would be deported to Rwanda to process their asylum claims.

On Friday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said “criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk”.

“We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue & bring down dangerous smuggler gangs,” she wrote on X.

The further loss of life in the Channel this morning is truly awful. My thoughts are with all those affected.

Criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk. We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue & bring down dangerous smuggler gangs.

— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) July 12, 2024

In April, five people, including a child, died trying to cross from France.

British opposition Home Secretary James Cleverly said the reports of the deaths in the Channel were a “tragedy”.

“As a country, we must do everything in our power to stop the boats and put an end to this vile trade in human suffering,” he wrote on X.

Far-right leader Nigel Farage said the government “had better start moving fast”, referring to small boat crossings into the United Kingdom.

Cooper announced she would appoint a leader of the UK’s new Border Security Command within weeks, which will “smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings”.

According to the Migration Observatory, which is part of Oxford University’s Centre on Migration Policy and Society, about 12,600 small boat arrivals were detected in 2024. In 2023, an estimated 30,000 people made the crossing, according to UK government figures.

Latest Home Office figures showed that 419 people journeyed across the Channel from France to the UK on Tuesday in six boats.