PARIS, Dec 3 — Some 190 migrants have been rescued off the Calais coast in northern France since Friday night while trying to cross the English Channel on dinghies to reach Britain, local French authorities said yesterday, without specifying from where those migrants had come.

The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong. Human traffickers typically overload the dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at the mercy of waves as they try to reach British shores. — Reuters