Four people have died after a small boat sank in the Channel between France and Britain, French local authorities said on Thursday.

“A taxi-boat sinking occurred today. The situation is still being assessed and remains subject to change,” local authorities in Calais said in a press statement.

In the past year, traffickers have taken to motoring dinghies along stretches of the northern French and Belgian coasts, picking migrants up along the shore. Authorities refer to them as “taxi-boats”.

About 2,200 migrants crossed the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to the UK in the first two months of 2026, according to data from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory. About 41,500 people made the crossing last year.

More details soon …