Several boats of sinking migrants were rescued over the weekend in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais and 113 people, including a woman and two children in a state of hypothermia, brought ashore on the French side, announced in the night from Sunday to Monday May 16 the maritime prefecture.
Read alsoShipwreck of migrants: “The triple betrayal”
In high demand during the night from Saturday to Sunday and during the day on Sunday, the Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue (Cross) Gris-Nez first hired a Customs patrol to rescue a boat in distress. carrying 40 people, who were dropped off in Dunkirk, explains the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea in a press release.
A gendarmerie patrol boat then picked up 38 other shipwrecked people and dropped them off in Calais, then a maritime Gendarmerie patrol boat and again the Customs patrol boat took care of 35 people, including "
a woman and two children rescued in a state of illness. 'hypothermia
', also brought ashore in Calais.
792 migrants for 30 boats
During the week of May 2 to 8 alone, the British authorities counted 792 migrants arriving by sea on 30
small boats
, according to figures published by the British Ministry of Defense.
Read alsoMigrants: the number of Channel crossings up sharply this year
In mid-April, Boris Johnson's government sparked outrage from human rights defenders when it announced that asylum seekers arriving illegally in the UK would be sent to Rwanda, a deal struck to try to deter illegal crossings from the Channel.
According to the maritime prefecture, 38 migrants died in 2021, including 27 in the same shipwreck on November 24.