Two men died and two women suffered severe burns today when a fire broke out on an overcrowded mega-dinghy bound for Britain.
French rescuers looked on as the tragedy unfolded off the coast at Berck, south of Boulogne-sur-mer.
Mass panic broke out among the 80 men, women and children onboard when an outboard motor appeared to catch fire because of a leak.
When the boat was around a mile into the English Channel, French rescue boats were in position, but were powerless to intervene.
The deaths came as another group of migrants were brought ashore at Gosport in Hampshire last night amid fresh protests.
The 149 migrants had left a beach in Normandy on Sunday morning before being accompanied by French rescue vessels to British waters, where they were picked up by the RNLI. They have now been taken by land to Dover to be processed.
Police have responded to the prospect of further protests by setting up a dispersal zone covering the whole of Gosport.
The order means anyone gathering in the historic naval port who does not leave when instructed to do so by a police officer can be arrested.
Hampshire Constabulary has also banned protesters from wearing face coverings to conceal their identity. Six people were arrested in Gosport last night.
Crossings continued today, with photos showing migrants boarding a packed dinghy at the beach at Plage d'Ecault near Boulogne in northern France
Migrants walk along the beach as a French official watches on
Jean-Marc Lamblin, skipper of the Berck lifeboat, watched the incident at Berck unfold this morning.
He told the Voix du Nord [Voice of the North] news outlet: 'When we arrived, we counted at least 80 people on board, and there was a terrible smell of petrol.
'The boat was overloaded, but the situation was calm to begin with. People were happy to see us arrive –the boat was underway, and they knew they were going to be escorted [to Britain].
'They were bailing out water using shoes - we're used to that.'
Mr Lamblin continued: 'At this stage of the operation, no one was asking for help. The boat was moving forward, slowly.
'However, we noticed migrants taking the babies and children away from the centre of the boat, and moving them to the sides.'
Within a few minutes people were screaming and shouting, and there were pleas for an immediate rescue.
Mr Lamblin said: 'There, among the people huddled in the bottom of the boat, we pulled out a young woman who had suffered severe burns to her lower body from a mixture of seawater and petrol.'
Two Somalian women aged 20 and 26 had been engulfed in flames, and one was 'weeping and in a state of total panic' because she had lost sight of her daughter, said Mr Lamlin, adding that the little girl was later found on dry land.
He said: 'Finally, we made one last approach. That was when we pulled out two men in cardiac arrest.
'We performed CPR on them for 43 minutes on board, assisted by a nurse,' but they were soon declared dead.
The dead were aged 35 and 45. Their names and nationalities have not been released.
Last week, a ten-year-old boy and two women were crushed to death in an overcrowded migrant mega-dinghy.
The child – who was Eritrean – suffocated in the disaster, alongside the adults, who were both in their 30s.
They had boarded the craft at Sangatte beach, Calais, in the early hours of last Monday, along with around 102 others.
The flimsy dinghy, which was provided by people smugglers charging around £1000 per place, was only designed for 20 people, so soon started to sink in the water.
Some 10 others were injured on the vessel, which was described by the prefect as a 'water taxi'.
This meant it arrived relatively empty from an inland waterway, before picking up passengers from a number of beaches, including Wissant and Sangatte.
French prosecutors have opened criminal enquiries into all the tragedies, and judicial police are investigating.
The latest deaths mean that at least 26 people, including women and children, have died in the Channel this year as they tried to get to Britain.
Many have drowned, while others have been crushed to death in overcrowded boats.
The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.
Multiple attempts at crossings have taken place from the coast of northern France over the last few days, as the smugglers take advantage of calm seas and good weather.
In total, almost 19000 migrants have reached England on dinghies since January.
The provisional total for Channel crossings this year is 19,451.
This is down 43 per cent on this time last year and 23 per cent below the figure at this stage in 2024.