A migrant dinghy carrying an estimated 130 people launched from Utah Beach in Normandy, the site of the D-Day landings, and was escorted across the Channel before being brought ashore near Portsmouth by RNLI lifeboats. The incident highlights how the same stretch of French coastline once used to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation is now being exploited by people-smuggling networks, and comes amid growing public anger in Britain over small boat crossings, including from hard-right groups.

The overloaded vessel, believed to have been made in China and assembled in Germany, set off at around 3.30am and was intercepted just four miles offshore by French patrol boats, which shadowed rather than turned it back under their rules of engagement. RNLI boats from Bembridge and Yarmouth, backed by a rescue helicopter, took over the escort roughly halfway across the 95-mile crossing and transferred passengers onto lifeboats after Portsmouth and Southampton ports refused docking due to a lack of processing facilities; migrants were eventually landed at Eastney Landing near Portsmouth at about 5pm, coinciding with the presence of a local hard-right protest group.