‘We don’t have life jackets’: Distress calls from small boats in Channel surge

An inflatable dinghy carrying around 65 migrants crosses the English Channel on 6 March 2024 (Photo: Dan Kitwood/ Getty)

“The boat is sinking. People have fallen in the water. There’s women and children on board”.

These are just some of the desperate pleas for help recorded in distress calls from small boats in the Channel this year during a surge in crossings.

Call logs, seen by i, show that more distress alerts have been sent to the humanitarian hotline run by charity Utopia56 so far this year than for the same period in 2022 or 2023.

110 distress calls have been made from people crossing the Channel in small boats since the start of 2024. At the same point in 2023, just 45 calls had been made. There were a total of 150 between January and the end of November 2023.

At this point in 2022 – which was a record year for Channel crossings – just 36 distress calls had been made. In total, 214 were made that year.

The total number of distress alerts sent out from small boats crossing the Channel is likely to be higher, because calls can also be made directly to the French or British authorities.

The logs, recorded by Utopia’s staff after they receive a call, reveal chilling details of the dangerous crossings.

Utopia operates a humanitarian helpline that migrants sometimes call when in distress at sea. They then pass the calls on to the French or British coastguard.

“Multiple people have fallen in the water,” one caller told Utopia on 31 January at 11.10am, on a boat they said was carrying around 60 people.

“The boat is sinking,” another said on 17 January at 6.30pm, on board with an estimated 44 others.

“There’s a lot of water in the boat. Most people don’t have lifejackets,” said one caller at 7.01am on 20 March, from a boat carrying 70 people.

Another caller, on 13 January at 4.10am, said: “The driver doesn’t know where to go.”

Distress calls have been made from boats carrying up to 80 people. One boat had “at least five women” on board, another had “at least five children”, while a third had “five women and five children, with water in the boat”.

The number of boats crossing the Channel has increased sharply this year after a drop over winter, with no successful attempts over Christmas for the first time since records began five years ago.

So far, 5,435 people have crossed from France in small boats in 2024 compared with 4,548 by the same period in 2022 – which was a record – a leap of almost 20 per cent. On 31 March, nine boats arrived carrying 442 people.

If numbers crossing were to continue to rise by a fifth compared with 2022, it could mean more than 50,000 arriving in Kent this year.

Home Office sources said they had recorded no increase in the number of boats attempting to cross the Channel this year so far compared with the same period, with more people believed to be crammed into fewer boats and some attempts to cross failing.

They suggested the increased number of distress calls may be a reflection of the greater risks individuals are now prepared to take to cross.

There was an unusually high number of people in Calais during the winter, aid workers at the site said.

i visited the makeshift camps where most are living earlier this year, finding teenagers burning plastic to keep warm in the Calais woodland. Some had developed scabies or trench foot through sleeping in their shoes during the cold and wet winter.

Sudanese children as young as 14 who fled civil war have been arriving alone in Calais’ migrant camps and waiting to try to cross the Channel in small boats to reach the UK.

Utopia described the situation in Calais as “chaotic”.

“At least 5,500 people have already crossed the English Channel this year, an increase of 18 per cent compared to 2023. At least 10 people have drowned since 1 January, and reports of police violence continue to mount. We demand an immediate end to the violence and the opening of safe passage routes to the UK,” a spokesperson said.

The charity has previously accused the French coastguard of ignoring the pleas of migrants at risk of drowning at sea when it referred calls to them.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The unacceptable number of people who continue to cross the Channel demonstrates exactly why we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible.

“We continue to work closely with French police who are facing increasing violence and disruption on their beaches as they work tirelessly to prevent these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary journeys.

“We remain committed to building on the successes that saw arrivals drop by more than a third last year, including tougher legislation and agreements with international partners, in order to save lives and stop the boats.”

The Government has sought to bolster policing along the French coast, with an agreement doubling the number of personnel on beaches and giving them enhanced technology to prevent departures.

It has also instigated joint operations with Turkey to tackle smuggling gangs and the supply chain of boat parts, and launched social media campaigns to deter crossings.