The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has revealed its crews saved the lives of 108 migrants crossing to the UK from France last year. It is the first time it has published figures for the work its brave volunteers do in the Channel.
It lifeboats launched 290 times during 2022 to attend incidents involving men, women and children making the perilous journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes in what it describes as “small, overcrowded and unseaworthy boats”.
They represent just 3% of its total 9,312 launches around the UK and Ireland last year. But the 108 lives make up more than a quarter of the 389 people saved by lifeboat crews last year.
