Overview

• The RNLI has published footage of an August 2023 operation in which volunteers pulled 19 migrants from a capsized dinghy, all of whom survived while six others rescued by different vessels did not.
• In 2024 RNLI crews rescued 1,371 people from small boats in the Channel, representing 3.7% of the total crossings recorded by the Home Office.
• Volunteers such as Paula Lain and Dan Sinclair assert that they respond to all Coastguard requests without political judgment and reject Nigel Farage’s labels of the charity as a 'taxi service' for illegal migrants.
• So far in 2025 almost 24,000 migrants have reached the UK in small boats, the highest annual figure since crossings began in 2018.
• Public tensions have spilled into protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers and spurred discussions of stricter border measures and AI-driven age verification for migrants.