French authorities announced a search-and-rescue operation after a?small boat?carrying migrants attempting to reach Britain went down in the Channel.

A taxi-boat sank today. The situation is still under assessment and could change, local French authorities said in a press statement.

Traffickers began using motorized dinghies to pick up migrants along the coast of northern France and Belgium in the last year. Authorities call them 'taxi boats'.

According to data from the University of Oxford Migration Observatory, 2,200 migrants crossed the Channel in the first two?months of 2026. The Channel is one of the?busiest shipping lanes in the world. About 41,500 people travelled across the Channel in the past year. (Reporting and editing by Alex Richardson, Richard Lough, Charlotte Van Campenhout)

(source: Reuters)