EU sends boats to English Channel to help tackle 'migration crisis'
- Last updated: September 5, 2026 | 11:38
Migrants run as they try to board a smuggler's boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France. File/AFP
The European Union's border agency will send boats out into the English Channel and the North Sea to help search for and rescue migrants, officials said on Friday, days after France and Britain's leaders met and discussed migration, Reuters reported.
The Frontex agency will send out two Spanish boats from September to October, and then one from Lithuania up to January, to join French patrols, authorities managing the area said.
The Channel is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and many migrants have died in its strong currents trying to cross from France to Britain. Human traffickers regularly overload dinghies, leaving them barely afloat.
WAM