166 migrants rescued in a single night in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais

During the night of Tuesday July 5 to Wednesday July 6, several makeshift boats which were starting a crossing of the English Channel found themselves in difficulty in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais. The emergency services intervened at least five times to rescue a total of 166 migrants.

A first intervention took place off the Touquet for a boat carrying 47 people. Off Berk, then 33 migrants were rescued, then 21 in the Calais sector. Each time, their boat was in difficulty.

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An ocean buoy also took part in the operation, picking up 43 shipwrecked people on board off Hardelot. A last boat is the subject of an intervention with 22 people on board, one of whom was very weakhad to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital.

A network of smugglers dismantled

This large-scale rescue operation comes as a large network of smugglers has just been dismantled by 5 European countries, including France. 39 people, including 9 in France, were arrested following several months of investigation. They are suspected of being part of an Iraqi-Kurdish smuggling organization which has smuggled up to 10,000 migrants from France to the UK over the past 12 to 18 months.

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