A newborn baby was rescued by emergency services after traveling nine hours across the Channel to England on Saturday, arriving in a dinghy with a group of migrants, a British broadcaster reported.
A police officer wrapped the infant in a blanket after she was handed over by an RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) crew member, moments after reaching the shore of Dungeness in Kent.
The mother of the baby girl, identified by Sky as Aayan, was also traveling on board.
Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to reach Britain, either by stowing away in trucks or on ferries, or—increasingly since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted international travel—in dinghies and other small boats organized by smugglers.
The British and French governments have worked for years to stop the journeys, without much success.
More than 14,000 people have made the crossing this year, according to a count by Britain’s Press Association news agency.
In 2020, about 8,500 people made the journey, and several died in the attempt.
