Migrants: relief operation underway in the English Channel

A rescue operation is underway on Wednesday, December 14 in the English Channel for a "

", a term generally used to describe the makeshift boats aboard which migrants are increasingly traveling to the United Kingdom.

As England and northern France experience freezing temperatures, the British Coastguard is "

" (south East of England), they said.

Ambulance services said they were contacted by the coastguard around 3:40 a.m. (local and GMT).

45,000 crossings since the beginning of the year

“

,” the UK government said, adding that “

.”

Read alsoMigrants in the Channel: the summer of all records

Boats and rescue teams from several towns in south-east England were mobilised, along with two British helicopters and "

", according to the coastguard.

On the French side, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea adds that a patrol boat from the national navy has also come as reinforcements.

Since the beginning of the year, nearly 45,000 have made the perilous crossing, compared to nearly 30,000 the previous year.

Overwhelmed asylum system

The incident comes the day after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a sweeping package of measures to tackle illegal immigration.

The issue is highly sensitive for the Conservatives, who have been promising since Brexit to "

" of the borders.

In vain, never have so many people tried to cross the Channel, completely overflowing the system of asylum applications.

Read alsoMigrants in the Channel: Paris and London united against “small boats”

London notably announced an agreement with Albania, the Albanians representing a third (13,000) of crossings this year.

A shipwreck had already claimed the lives of 27 migrants crossing the Channel last year.

On the night of November 23 to 24, 2021, twenty-seven migrants aged 7 to 46 - sixteen Kurds from Iraq, one Kurd from Iran, four Afghans, three Ethiopians, one Somali, one Egyptian and one Vietnamese - had died. in the sinking of their inflatable boat off Calais, while trying to reach England.

In mid-November, the French newspaper

claimed that the passengers of the boat had called the French authorities about fifteen times to ask for help, in vain.

At least 205 migrants have died or gone missing crossing the English Channel since 2014, according to the UN migration organization's Missing Migrants Project.