Scores rescued after boat catches fire in English Channel | CNN

More than 150 migrants were rescued in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a boat caught fire in the English Channel in an attempt to travel from France to Britain. The boat’s engine caught fire and its “condition deteriorated very rapidly,” forcing French and British coastguards to rescue 157 people, France’s maritime prefecture of the Channel and North Sea said. French authorities had already rescued five people from the boat overnight Monday. They had sent several vessels to monitor the boat’s crossing when it set out from near Boulogne-sur-Mer on Monday, as these types of voyages are notoriously dangerous – a total of 162 people have died in migrant boats trying to cross the Channel between 2018 and 2025, according to the Migration Observatory. There are no reports of any fatalities in this instance. Small boat crossings have become a political flashpoint in the UK in recent years, driving harder-line immigration policies from both center-right Conservative and center-left Labour governments, and contributing to the rise of the populist hard-right party Reform UK. Just two days before Tuesday’s rescue, Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged his g