Nearly 250 migrants were rescued at sea overnight from Friday to Saturday, then during the day on Saturday, after finding themselves in difficulty while trying to cross the Channel.
They were recovered and deposited at the quayside in the ports of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkirk and Calais, the maritime prefecture announced on Saturday evening in a press release, where they were "
taken care of by the border police (PAF) and the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS)
”.
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On Friday, the maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea noted during an interview with AFP "
a new acceleration
" in November of attempted crossings, which had already doubled in the past three months, while their pace slowed down in the fall in previous years. Its services had recorded 15,400 departure attempts and 3,500 passengers rescued over the first eight months of the year. "
Today, we have more than doubled these figures: we are at 31,500 migrants having left the coasts and 7,800 migrants having been rescued,
" Philippe Dutrieux said on Friday.
The Gris-Nez operational surveillance and rescue center (CROSS) "has engaged numerous maritime resources" for these relief operations, the press release said, pointing to the dangerousness of this sector with strong winds, heavy traffic and water temperature. currently in decline.
The human toll for 2021 has dropped from one death on August 31 to a total of seven dead or missing.