Crossings which multiply.
Thirty migrants including three children were rescued at sea and brought back to the French coast on Monday morning as they tried to reach England aboard two makeshift boats, said the maritime prefecture.
In the night from Sunday to Monday, a ferry off Gravelines (North) warned the Gris-Nez regional operational surveillance and rescue center (CROSS) of the presence of a boat, with 18 migrants on board, including one child, specifies in a press release the prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.
A French Navy ship picked them up and brought them back to the French coast around 10:00 am.
[#Scue] of 30 migrants in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais thanks to the support of BEGM ThĂ©tis and đ Dauphin of @MarineNationale and @SauveteursenMer of @Ville_Boulogne under the coordination of #CROSS Gris-Nez âĄïž https : //t.co/ejddCc7YWg pic.twitter.com/0u6tRRIkj3
- Prefecture maritime Channel and North Sea (@premarmanche) January 11, 2021
The CROSS Gris-Nez was also warned by the Samu of Pas-de-Calais that a boat of 12 migrants was in difficulty between Hardelot and Boulogne-sur-Mer.
A canoe from the Boulogne-sur-Mer National Society for Rescue at Sea (SNSM) brought them back to land around 10:30 am.
All were taken in charge by the firefighters and presented to the border police.
Numerous crossings despite the danger
Since the end of 2018, these illegal crossings of the Channel are still numerous, despite repeated warnings from the authorities stressing the danger linked to the density of traffic, strong currents and low water temperature.
In 2020, more than 9,500 crossings or attempted crossings of this type were recorded, four times more than in 2019, according to a report from the maritime prefecture.
Six people were killed there and three disappeared, after four deaths in 2019.
In the fall, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture counted seven deaths, including that of a man found on May 25 in the port of Calais.
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Migrants: ever more numerous crossings of the Channel
Found "in the sea at port level, facing the harbor master's office" and wearing a bracelet bearing the name of "Camara", the victim could not be identified "but it is probably a migrant person", specified Monday the prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pascal Marconville.
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According to the maritime prefecture, he would have died after attempting to board a ship illegally.
The prosecutor considers "impossible to know if it is about an attempt of crossing, even if that appears very probable".
