Six different operations made it possible to rescue more than 200 migrants in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais from Wednesday night to Thursday at the end of the day.
Attempts to cross the Channel to reach the English coast do not diminish. From Wednesday night to Thursday at the end of the day, 202 migrants were rescued in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, announced the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea in a press release.
“On the night of Wednesday March 2 to Thursday March 3, 2022 until the day, the regional operational center for surveillance and rescue (CROSS) Gris-Nez identifies several boats in difficulty in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais”, explains the prefecture in its press release.
A first operation deployed the RIAS (intervention, assistance and rescue tug) Abeille Languedoc as well as a helicopter to rescue 43 shipwrecked people whose boat took on water. Some were at sea at the time of the rescue mission.
Six different operations
The same ship was mobilized a second time to pick up 49 shipwrecked people and then a third time to save seven. All were then dropped off at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer and taken care of by firefighters and border police.
Another mission engaged the all-weather boat Jean Bart II of the Dunkirk SNSM, which rescued 41 shipwrecked people. Sixteen others were rescued by a public service patrol boat and dropped off at the port of Calais. Finally, 46 migrants were picked up by another patrol boat from the French customs coastguard and brought back to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
The year 2021 has seen the number of Channel crossings drastically increase. According to the British press agency PA, at least 28,935 migrants made the perilous crossing in 2021more than triple the previous year. The number of shipwrecked migrants rescued off Calais and supported by the State has tripled in 2021.