LILLE: More than 9,500 migrants crossed or attempted to cross the English Channel from France to Britain last year, a fourfold increase from 2019, French maritime officials said Friday.

Migrants entering Europe have long sought to reach Britain in the belief it is their best chance of securing asylum or residency, prompting growing numbers to make the journey across the perilous waters of the busy shipping lane.

“In 2020, 868 incidents involving attempts or crossings of migrants by boat were recorded in the Channel, involving 9,551 migrants,” the maritime authority in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said.

Six people died and three went missing, up from four deaths in 2019, when just 203 crossings or attempts were detected — itself a fourfold increase from the number in 2018.