More than 200 candidates for exile were rescued in two days after leaving the French coast towards England, the maritime prefecture said, reporting “many departures” despite the freezing temperatures.
On the night of Friday December 13 to Saturday December 14, a boat of migrants in difficulty near Calais called for help from the regional operational surveillance and rescue center (Cross) Gris-Nez, which engaged a helicopter and several vessels relief. They arrived while the boat was sinking and several passengers were overboard, detailed the maritime prefecture (Prémar) of the Channel and the North Sea in a press release.
Sea rescue services recovered 72 people, while 16 other people were treated on land after returning to the beach on their own. The search continued until 4 a.m. to find possible other castaways.
At least 73 people have died since January while trying to cross the Channel illegally, a record, according to the Pas-de-Calais prefecture.
“Signs of panic”
Six other people were picked up on Saturday morning by a French assistance ship, which was monitoring their clandestine boat and ended up intervening after “signs of panic” on board.
These operations follow another series of rescues the day before, also marked by numerous departures.
Early Friday, a boat with an engine failure requested assistance, and 37 passengers were brought ashore at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais). Off the coast of Ambleteuse, 75 passengers were rescued, half a few minutes after departure because they abandoned the crossing aboard an overloaded boat, and the others once the boat's engine broke down . And on the morning of Friday, it was in the Somme that a boat ran aground, near the port of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme. Rescuers recovered eight migrants.
The maritime prefecture warned against illegal crossings using one of the world's busiest maritime routes, with more than 600 commercial ships passing through per day and weather conditions “often difficult”.
Source: Lemonde