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The number of migrants risking their lives by attempting to cross the English Channel by sea has increased four-fold over the last year.
French officials intercepted around 2,358 migrants trying to reach the U.K. by boat or swimming in 2019, according to the Guardian.
The number is four times higher than 2018, when 586 people attempted the journey.
Four people died in 2019, the newspaper reported, while more than half of the 261 attempted sea crossings were unsuccessful.
Britain’s Border Force and Coastguard Officials rescued 49 migrants from four small boats in the early hours of December 26.