The French navy rescued forty migrants on Saturday trying to cross the Channel to England, the maritime prefecture said.
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A national navy patrol boat, which had intervened at dawn for the diversion of a Russian boat within the framework of European sanctions, was called upon later in the morning for a boat in difficulty off Dunkirk (North).
He recovered 40 castaways, said the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Prémar) in a press release, without specifying their nationalities.
Brought back to the port of Dunkirk, they were taken care of by the police and firefighters according to the same source.
After a stormy period, marked by two orange alerts for strong winds last week, the weather was mild on Saturday.
The crossing is perilous, the English Channel being one of the busiest maritime areas in the world, but attempts at clandestine crossings reached a record number in 2021, at more than 28,000 people, according to the British press agency PA.
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These attempts left at least 30 dead and four missing in 2021, according to a report from the maritime prefecture.
An exile candidate died at sea in January.