More than 100 migrants rescued in Channel less than week after £650m France deal

More than 100 migrants have been rescued from the English Channel, less than a week after the UK signed a new deal with the French government to curb crossings.

A total of 106 migrants were pulled from the sea by the French coastguard on Sunday after the dinghy they were travelling in broke down.

They were transferred to a rescue ship before being taken to Calais, according to French authorities.

One of them, a woman, lost consciousness and had to be airlifted to safety by helicopter, France's maritime authority said.

The people smugglers used a so-called "taxi boat", but the craft was seen in the early hours of Sunday morning as it travelled east along the coast towards Wimereux to pick up people.

Traffickers using the tactic, designed to avoid detection by police, take dinghies along the coast with just a driver to pre-arranged beaches where migrants wade into the water to climb on board.

It came three days after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year, £662m agreement with France to support beach patrols as part of efforts to drive down the number of arrivals.

On Saturday, the first migrants to reach the UK since the deal was signed arrived in the UK.

Under the scheme, the Home Office said officers will target and detain migrants on the French coast to stop them even entering the water, with the aim of reducing the numbers attempting the dangerous crossing each year.

More than £501m will be provided by the UK to finance five police units and enforcement activity on French beaches - with an extra £160m only paid if new tactics to curb Channel crossings succeed.

If efforts fail, the additional funding will stop after a year, the Home Office said.

But ministers have stopped short of setting specific targets to measure the success of the deal.

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So far this year, more than 6,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after making the journey, down 36% on the number this time last year, Press Association analysis of government figures shows.

More than 70,000 have arrived since Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister.

On Saturday, a group of more than a dozen people, including women and children, were pictured being brought into the Border Security Command compound in Dover after being collected in the Channel.

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