One migrant died and seven others suffered injuries including severe burns as they attempted to reach England on a small boat.
Around 60 men, woman and children were rescued off the coast of northern France early on Monday morning.
It is thought that a fire connected to a faulty outboard motor broke out on their boat, which was provided by people smugglers.
They were all brought back to Le Portel, close to Boulogne-sur-Mer, at around 3am by two rescue craft – the Abeille Normandie [Normandy Bee] and Thénis, said an emergency services spokesman.
“Multiple firefighters attended the scene,” he added, explaining how a blaze had broken out, severley burning two Somalian men, aged 20 and 26.
The deceased was an unidentified man, whose age and country of origin is not known, he added.
Two women, aged 35 and 28, and both originally from Eritrea, also showed signs of severe hypothermia, as did three others, including a boy.
Those rescued were treated by paramedics, or else rushed to hospital.
It came following a weekend of “intense activity” on the cross-Channel migrant route, said the source.
“Good weather, including sunshine and a lack of wind, meant numerous small boats set off,” he said.
More than 10 people have died trying to reach Britain on small boats this year alone.
Prosecutors in France have started an enquiry into the latest fatality, while judicial police are looking for the people smugglers who arranged the crossing.
At total of 78 migrants died in 2024 while trying to reach England in the same way.
This was a record since smugglers started launching small boats full of migrants in 2018.
In January, a Syrian man became the first UK-bound migrant of 2025 to die in the Channel after being crushed to death in an overcrowded boat.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said of such tragedies: “Our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organising these crossings of death.”
In April 2024, a criminal enquiry was launched following the deaths of five migrants including a little girl around Wimereux, near Calais.
The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have pledged to “strengthen cooperation” to fight the people smugglers, but they are regularly criticised for not doing enough.
Last month, it was announced that the number of people who have crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2025 has exceeded 10,000, an increase of about 40% compared with the same period last year.
