Eight boats carrying a total of 159 migrants, including 10 children and a pregnant woman, who were trying to reach the British coast, were rescued Thursday off the coast between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dunkirk, announced the maritime prefecture.
Managed by the regional operational surveillance and rescue center (CROSS), the operations first made it possible to rescue 26 castaways - including four children - among whom several appearing to be in a state of hypothermia, taken care of when they disembarked in Dunkirk.
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In good weather, operations then followed one another: a speedboat picked up four castaways, then two boats hired by the CROSS picked up 23 and 32 migrants.
A third boat was dispatched to rescue 18 castaways, some of whom seemed to be hypothermic, reported in difficulty by a fishing vessel in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais.
In the meantime, the intervention, assistance and rescue tug of the French Navy, Abeille Languedoc, first recovered three, then 41 castaways, brought back to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
The merchant vessel Orient Angel then informed the CROSS that it had taken charge of 12 castaways, who remained on board unharmed in the evening, the weather in the area not allowing their immediate transhipment.
Since the end of 2018, these illegal crossings of the Channel by migrants seeking to reach the United Kingdom have increased despite repeated warnings from the authorities underlining the danger linked to the density of traffic, strong currents and the low temperature of the sea. 'water.
In 2020, more than 9,500 crossings or attempted crossings of this type were recorded, i.e. four times more than in 2019, according to a report from the maritime prefecture.
Six people were killed there and three disappeared, after four deaths in 2019.
