More than 170 migrants rescued after boat catches fire during Channel crossing

Migrants wrapped in red blankets stepped off a rescue ship in France on Tuesday, an AFP reporter said, after French and British authorities saved 173 people whose boat caught fire as they tried to cross the Channel.

It was one of the largest rescue operations reported since records began in 2018 of such dangerous sea journeys from France to the United Kingdom.

"A small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard" on Tuesday morning, the prefect's office in France's Pas-de-Calais region said.

French maritime authorities later Tuesday revised the number of people rescued to 173 from an earlier figure of 157.

Rescue services official Thierry Darras said some had sustained burns, grazes or bruises, but no serious injuries.

They had left the coastal village of Veules-les-Roses in Normandy on Monday, French maritime authorities said.

A spokesman for the British coastguard said UK vessels and a lifeboat were assisting after "a vessel caught fire earlier this morning" in French waters.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution charity said it had launched a boat to help at 6:00 am.

France has long been a launchpad for migrants without visas hoping to cross the Channel to start a better life in Britain.

They pay smugglers thousands of dollars to board often overloaded rubber dinghies to make the sometimes deadly journey across one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

In recent weeks, witnesses in France have said they have seen dinghies larger than usual depart from French shores, reporting they seemed to be 12 metres (40 feet) long instead of the usual eight or 10 metres.

French maritime authorities have told AFP the average number of people piled on these small boats has risen -- from 26 in 2021 to 65 since the start of the year.

A teenager from South Sudan appeared in court in England last week, accused of endangering lives by piloting one such overcrowded dinghy carrying 167 people earlier in July.

He has denied being in charge of the vessel.

Tuesday's rescue was "a very visible reminder, both of the dangerous nature of those crossings, also of the blind indifference that human traffickers have for life on those boats", said UK Justice Secretary Alex Norris.

So far this year, 14,526 people have landed on British shores after such journeys, according to British authorities.

Last year, more than 41,000 migrants landed on England's southern coast -- the second-highest annual number since 2018.

London and Paris last year inked a so-called "one in, one out" deal, which has been criticised by charities working with migrants.

Under the accord, Britain has forcibly removed 1,087 people who arrived on small boats who it says do not meet the criteria to be given asylum, in exchange for admitting 1,117 other migrants who had requested entry to the United Kingdom from France via a legal route.

Since the start of the year, 15 people have died trying to cross the Channel, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources.

At least 29 migrants lost their lives last year, according to a similar AFP count.