Keystone-SDA
Between Tuesday evening and Wednesday, 94 migrants were rescued between Tuesday evening and Wednesday when they were trying to cross the Channel clandestinely during several separate operations off the coast of Pas-de-Calais and the North, the maritime prefecture said on Thursday.
(Keystone-ATS) Thirty-three people were rescued on a boat near the mouth of the AA canal in the middle of the night, 23 around 3:00 am after a engine problem off Dunkirk, then 36, one of which is slightly injured, in the morning in the vicinity of the Touquet, details the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (premar) in a press release.
Of these three boats, “the rest of the occupants” refused to be taken care of and continued their journey, specifies the premar. “In other operations coordinated during the day, two people were also rescued,” added the maritime prefecture. One hundred people had already been rescued between Sunday and Tuesday, according to premar.
On Saturday, a migrant who “seems to be a man in his thirty years of Somali nationality” died of a cardiac arrest, according to the assistant prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Philippe Sabatier.
The victim suffered “many injuries linked to an extended stay (…) in the fuel mixed with sea water which was on board the boat,” said the magistrate.
17 dead
Before this drama, 17 people had died since the start of the year trying to rally England by sea, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
In seven days between July 23 and 29, 1004 people arrived clandestinely in the United Kingdom aboard “Small Boats”, these makeshift boats used by migrants to cross the Channel, according to official figures from the British authorities.
Since January 1, more than 24,000 migrants have arrived in the United Kingdom in this way, a record at this stage of the year, according to the British authorities.
On July 10, an agreement was reached between France and the United Kingdom on the migration issue providing that for each dismissal in France of a migrant who arrived in the United Kingdom, London undertook to accept a migrant in France and justifying links with the country.
