More than 160 migrants rescued in the English Channel and the North Sea
On Friday 16 and Saturday 17 December, four rescue operations rescued 166 migrants trying to reach England. An Eritrean woman fell into the water near Etaples and was separated from her children.
In freezing temperatures, migrants have once again tried to reach the British coast. At sea, aboard makeshift boats, one hundred and sixty-six of them were rescued on Friday December 16 and Saturday December 17, reported the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Premar).
Sunday, December 18, when International Migrants Day is designated, Utopia 56 warns of the dangerousness of crossings. “A tragedy could have happenedlament the members of the association. This week, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, 4 migrants were killed when their canoe sank in the English Channel.
Ships from the French Navy, customs and the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM) brought the castaways back to the ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Ashore, the migrants were taken care of by firefighters and police, Premar said.
In the commune of Etaples, a woman of Eritrean origin was separated from her children. “She was saved after falling into the water in the Bay of Canche “, explains Jean Richert, the deputy secretary general of the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais. His children, them, reached the British coasts. Their separation worries the association Utopia 56, remained without news.
“We hope that the French State will propose a reunification of the mother and her children, before she takes the risk of braving the sea to find them.”
Taken care of at the hospital, she learns from a nurse, having contacted the Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue (CROSS), that her children are fine. Sheltering, “she is in contact with his three children thanks to civil protectionconfirms Jean Richert.
“With more than four hundred merchant ships passing through it daily“, the maritime route between France and England is one of the busiest in the world, specifies the prefect of Prémar in a press release. It warns of the dangerousness of the crossings, “especially in the middle of winter for precarious and overloaded boats”.