24 migrants rescued off the coast of Belgium

Twenty-four migrants trying to reach England in a makeshift boat were rescued about 40 km off the coast of Belgium on Wednesday, and four of them had to be hospitalized, Belgian police said.

The rescue operation, which lasted about four hours, more than 40 km off Zeebrugge, was triggered after a distress call from the occupants of the small boat, a police spokeswoman told AFP. federal.

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Among the 24 people, adults only, several suffered from hypothermia.

Four in all - two men and two women - had to be hoisted in order to be quickly hospitalized in Knokke.

Their life is not in danger, however, according to this spokesperson.

According to the Flemish press, there was an elderly lady among the two women on board and all had been at sea for two days.

The twenty people rescued who were subject to a police check on Wednesday come mostly from the Middle East.

More and more frequent attempt

Eleven are of Iraqi nationality.

There are also three Iranians, three Kuwaitis, an Afghan, an Egyptian and an Algerian.

Some of them are expected to be deported to another EU country where an asylum application has already been registered, the spokeswoman for the federal police added.

Crossing the Channel to reach England in makeshift boats is more and more frequent.

On the French side, according to the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, 29,360 migrants, possibly counted several times, attempted the crossing between January 1 and September 30: 15,553 passed and 13,807 remained stranded on land.

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And in 2020, the crossings and attempted crossings concerned some 9,500 people, against 2,300 in 2019 and 600 in 2018. The smugglers who organize these crossings in perilous conditions also sometimes operate from the Belgian coast even if the English coasts are more distant .

Last week, a 25-year-old Iraqi man was arrested in De Panne in Belgium with more than 100 life jackets in the trunk of his car.

The Bruges prosecutor, Frank Demeester, said that the material used by traffickers (inflatable boats, life jackets, motors, jerry cans etc.) often passed through Belgium "

".