https://feeds.thelocal.com/ Read the latest news and views from France in English en-us news@thelocal.com (TheLocal) webmaster@thelocal.com (TheLocal) TheLocal RSS Feed Two young Sudanese women appear to have suffocated to death on Sunday while trying to reach Britain from northern France in a small boat crammed with more than 80 people including pregnant women and children, officials said. https://www.thelocal.fr/20260503/two-women-suffocate-on-migrant-boat-off-french-coast-seeking-to-reach-uk Sun, 03 May 2026 15:19:06 +0200 two-women-suffocate-on-migrant-boat-off-french-coast-seeking-to-reach-uk Four people have died off the coast of northern France as they tried to cross the Channel to England, taking the number of small boat deaths this year to six. https://www.thelocal.fr/20260410/four-migrants-die-trying-to-cross-channel-french-officials Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:20:08 +0200 four-migrants-die-trying-to-cross-channel-french-officials Britain and France agreed to extend a migration deal for two months just hours before it was set to expire in order to complete tough negotiations, UK officials said. https://www.thelocal.fr/20260401/uk-and-france-extend-migrants-deal-for-two-months Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:00:27 +0200 uk-and-france-extend-migrants-deal-for-two-months Britain has paid France €540 million since 2023 in fees to combat small boats carrying undocumented migrants across the Channel, a senior French official said. https://www.thelocal.fr/20260227/britain-has-paid-france-e540million-to-counter-channel-boats-ministry Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:06:44 +0100 britain-has-paid-france-e540million-to-counter-channel-boats-ministry French prosecutors are seeking prison terms of one to nine years for 17 alleged smugglers they accuse of ferrying migrants across the Channel to England. https://www.thelocal.fr/20251210/french-prosecutors-seek-up-to-nine-years-for-channel-migrant-smugglers Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:39:31 +0100 french-prosecutors-seek-up-to-nine-years-for-channel-migrant-smugglers French authorities have evacuated a camp in a disused warehouse in Calais where hundreds of migrants had been sheltering. https://www.thelocal.fr/20251001/france-clears-calais-migrant-camp-housing-hundreds Wed, 01 Oct 2025 11:02:36 +0200 france-clears-calais-migrant-camp-housing-hundreds French medics had to treat Eritrean migrants hidden in a UK-bound refrigerated lorry for hypothermia Saturday, after the driver heard their cries for help, officials told AFP. https://www.thelocal.fr/20250810/migrants-saved-from-refrigerated-lorry-in-france Sun, 10 Aug 2025 13:38:48 +0200 migrants-saved-from-refrigerated-lorry-in-france A French court has sentenced seven Afghans and two Iraqi Kurds to seven to eight years in jail over the fatal capsizing of a boat carrying asylum seekers from France to England in 2022. https://www.thelocal.fr/20250701/france-court-jails-migrant-smugglers-over-2022-channel-deaths Tue, 01 Jul 2025 10:42:34 +0200 france-court-jails-migrant-smugglers-over-2022-channel-deaths France is considering stopping Britain-bound migrant boats in its shallow coastal waters, but the move raises both safety and legal issues. https://www.thelocal.fr/20250619/france-mulls-intercepting-uk-bound-migrant-boats-at-sea Thu, 19 Jun 2025 10:44:00 +0200 france-mulls-intercepting-uk-bound-migrant-boats-at-sea Gunfire near a migrant camp in northern France killed one person Saturday, a prosecutor said, after authorities rescued almost 100 people trying to cross the Channel to Britain in two days. https://www.thelocal.fr/20250615/gunfire-kills-one-near-france-migrant-camp Sun, 15 Jun 2025 13:10:09 +0200 gunfire-kills-one-near-france-migrant-camp France and Britain have again pledged to step up the fight against migrant Channel crossings and agreed to extend a key border security deal until 2027. https://www.thelocal.fr/20250228/france-and-uk-pledge-to-step-up-fight-against-illegal-migration Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:54:27 +0100 france-and-uk-pledge-to-step-up-fight-against-illegal-migration Three migrants died Sunday in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain, a local mayor told AFP. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241229/three-die-in-clandestine-attempt-to-cross-channel-from-france Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:49:58 +0100 three-die-in-clandestine-attempt-to-cross-channel-from-france French authorities said they rescued 107 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England on Wednesday. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241226/107-migrants-rescued-in-channel-french-authorities Thu, 26 Dec 2024 09:32:45 +0100 107-migrants-rescued-in-channel-french-authorities More than 200 would-be exiles have been rescued in two days after leaving the French coast for England, the maritime prefecture said, reporting "many departures" despite the freezing temperatures. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241215/more-than-200-migrants-rescued-off-the-french-coast-in-two-days Sun, 15 Dec 2024 12:04:07 +0100 more-than-200-migrants-rescued-off-the-french-coast-in-two-days Rescue ship Ocean Viking has rescued 48 mostly underage migrants from the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, the Marseille-based aid group that operates the vessel said on Wednesday. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241127/dozens-of-underage-migrants-rescued-in-mediterranean Wed, 27 Nov 2024 16:41:57 +0100 dozens-of-underage-migrants-rescued-in-mediterranean Two bodies were found on beaches near Calais in northern France this week, prosecutors said, telling AFP their ‘working hypothesis’ was that the people were migrants who died trying to reach Britain. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241113/bodies-found-on-northern-france-beaches-believed-to-be-missing-migrants Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:23:11 +0100 bodies-found-on-northern-france-beaches-believed-to-be-missing-migrants A French court has issued prison terms of up to 15 years to 18 people convicted of forming a vast gang to smuggle migrants aboard small boats across the Channel to England. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241106/french-court-jails-18-members-of-channel-people-smuggling-gang Wed, 06 Nov 2024 09:37:06 +0100 french-court-jails-18-members-of-channel-people-smuggling-gang A migrant died Sunday in an attempt to cross the Channel to Britain, a death that comes on top of two deadly boat sinkings in the past 10 days, French officials said. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241027/migrant-dies-attempting-to-cross-channel-to-uk-french-authorities Sun, 27 Oct 2024 15:18:19 +0100 migrant-dies-attempting-to-cross-channel-to-uk-french-authorities A four-month baby died when an overloaded migrant boat headed for Britain sank in the Channel off the coast of France in the latest tragedy involving asylum seekers, French authorities said on Friday. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241018/baby-dies-65-rescued-after-migrant-boat-sinks-off-france Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:17:06 +0200 baby-dies-65-rescued-after-migrant-boat-sinks-off-france French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that immigration was not necessarily a "bad" thing, in a thinly veiled riposte to the country's hardline interior minister who has vowed to crack down on migration. https://www.thelocal.fr/20241006/immigration-is-not-a-bad-thing-frances-macron-says Sun, 06 Oct 2024 13:58:00 +0200 immigration-is-not-a-bad-thing-frances-macron-says