English Channel sees uptick in migrants trying to cross over

PARIS

British and French authorities said some 40 migrants were rescued in the waters between southern England and northern France on Christmas Day, amid a spike in attempts by migrants to cross the English Channel to British shores on small boats.

The French regional maritime authority, or prefecture, said in a statement that a small rubber boat with a failed engine was spotted Tuesday off the coast of Calais. A police helicopter monitoring the area directed a tugboat to the stranded migrants, the prefecture said.

The maritime authority said eight migrants, including two children, were found aboard the boat and handed over to British authorities. It didn’t provide the passengers’ nationalities.

Calais, a port city on one end of a Channel tunnel that connects France and England by train, long has been a magnet for migrants fleeing conflict or poverty in Africa and the Mideast. French officials two years ago closed a makeshift camp that swelled to a population of 10,000 at one point as people waited to try to hop trucks taking rail ferries or trains to England.