Around 140 migrants aboard a single rubber boat in the English Channel have been rescued and brought to Britain.

Around 140 migrants aboard a single rubber boat in the English Channel have been rescued and brought to Britain. The boat had departed from the Normandy coast and requested assistance after reaching British waters. According to the French coast guard, the migrants were rescued by two Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) boats from Britain and were subsequently brought ashore in the UK.

French rescue boats monitored the migrant boat for around 10 hours. Authorities said that attempting to stop the boat in the water would have been dangerous, so it was allowed to continue until it reached British waters, where lifeboats from Bembridge and Yarmouth took it under escort. French authorities said the boat had begun its journey from the Seine Bay area, around 170 miles from the usual departure points near Calais, making the journey to Britain considerably longer than usual.

The incident comes days after Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed efforts to make measures against illegal crossings in small boats more effective. Meanwhile, tensions were also reported between police and protesters near Eastney Landing Ferry Port in Portsmouth on Sunday night, where people arriving in small boats were brought ashore.

A day earlier, a large group of masked people staged a protest at Dover port against arrivals in small boats, severely disrupting normal operations. According to the report, a record 230 people successfully crossed the English Channel to Britain aboard a single small boat in August.