{"id":130706,"date":"2026-08-04T21:58:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=130706"},"modified":"2026-08-04T21:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:59:04","slug":"nearly-160-migrants-rescued-after-boat-catches-fire-during-channel-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web desk(National Times)- French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, authorities in both countries said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard\u201d on Tuesday morning, the prefect\u2019s office in France\u2019s Pas-de-Calais region said, adding no casualties had been reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They had left the coastal village of Veules-les-Roses in Normandy on Monday, French maritime authorities said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A spokesman for the British coastguard said UK vessels and a lifeboat were assisting after \u201ca vessel caught fire earlier this morning whilst in the French search and rescue region\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Royal National Lifeboat Institution charity said a \u201clifeboat launched at 6:00am today to an incident\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent weeks, witnesses in France have said they have seen dinghies larger than usual cross the shipping lane, reporting they seemed to be 12 metres long instead of the usual 8 or 10 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French maritime authorities have told&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>&nbsp;the average number of people piled on these small boats has risen \u2014 from 26 in 2021 to 65 since the start of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France has long been a launchpad for migrants&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1999316\">hoping<\/a>&nbsp;to cross the Channel to reach Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paying smugglers thousands of dollars, people often board overloaded rubber dinghies to make the dangerous and sometimes deadly journey across one of the world\u2019s busiest shipping routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 41,000 migrants landed on England\u2019s southern coast last year \u2014 the second-highest annual number since 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far this year, 14 people have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2009917\">died<\/a>&nbsp;trying to cross the Channel, according to an&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>&nbsp;tally based on official French and British sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least 29 migrants lost their lives in the Channel last year, according to a similar&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>&nbsp;count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web desk(National Times)- French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, authorities in both countries said. It is one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018. \u201cA small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web desk(National Times)- French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, authorities in both countries said. It is one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018. \u201cA small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-04T16:58:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-04T16:59:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-9-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/\",\"name\":\"Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-9-5.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-04T16:58:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-04T16:59:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-9-5.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-design-9-5.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/130706\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nearly 160 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing - Nation","og_description":"Web desk(National Times)- French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, authorities in both countries said. 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