the number of migrants seeking to cross the Channel explodes
The attempts to cross the Channel by migrants on boats have multiplied in recent days off the North and Pas-de-Calais, with a dramatic human toll which continues to grow
Two dead, one missing and hundreds of people rescued in two days: attempts to cross the Channel by migrants on boats have multiplied in recent days off the North and Pas-de-Calais, a “very heavy toll” »Mobilizing significant air and sea resources.
Thursday morning, the body of a migrant was found “in a 3.5-meter boat filled with water on a beach in Wissant,” said a source close to the investigation. At his side, two people “in a state of severe hypothermia” were taken to hospital. Two other migrants, reported to the maritime authorities as “shipwrecked at sea” in the same sector, were finally “found during the day on the beach”, the maritime prefecture indicated Thursday evening in a press release.
The day before, a migrant died, another was missing and 779 people were rescued at sea following the sinking of several boats in the English Channel. These rescue operations required the intervention of several ships of the French Navy, stars of the maritime gendarmerie, various units of the SNSM or two helicopters of the French and Belgian armies.
“All the means in the area have been received to bring help to people,” says Marine Gauthier, communications officer for the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea, obtained a “very heavy”, “exceptional” record.
In previous years, “over the same period, we observe a decrease in attempts to crossings as they approach winter”, affirms Ms. Gauthier, reporter in recent days “of numerous cases of hypothermia”.
Since the end of 2018, illegal crossings of the Channel by migrants seeking to reach the United Kingdom have exploded: from January to the end of October 2021, the maritime prefecture has recorded “1,008 events linked to attempts or crossings by sea involving 24,655 people “Of which” 5,713 castaways were rescued “.
“Truly exponential”
On land, a TER struck Thursday evening a group of four migrants who were circulating on the tracks, leaving one dead, one seriously injured and two lighter injuries.
In 2020, crossings and attempted sea crossings concerned some 9,500 people, compared to 2,300 in 2019 and 600 in 2018. “The phenomenon is not new, but we have the impression that it is really exponential. In recent days, this has reached enormous proportions and created absolutely dramatic accidents, ”reacted Pierre Roques, coordinator of the Auberge des Migrants.
In recent weeks, “the weather conditions have been exceptional on the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, the sea is particularly calm and we see the coasts of England every day”, notes Bernard Barron, president of the SNSM station in Calais. .
In mid-August, the sinking of a boat in the English Channel caused the death of an Eritrean migrant. Last year, seven people died in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais after four deaths in 2019.