The number of Channel crossings on dinghies tripled in 2021, with more than 28,000 migrants arriving in England.
A boat in difficulty, with 43 people on board, was rescued overnight from Thursday to Friday, said the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea on Friday evening.
The Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue (CROSS) Gris-Nez hired a patrol boat to pick up the migrants, before bringing them back to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Once at the dock, they were taken care of by border police and firefighters.
An increase in the number of crossings
The prefecture “warns anyone who plans to cross the Channel regarding the risks involved”.
“This maritime sector is one of the busiest areas in the world, with more than 400 commercial ships passing through it per day and the weather conditions are often difficult (120 days of wind greater than or equal to force 7 on an annual average, for example ), it is therefore a particularly dangerous sector”, she recalls.
Rising since 2018, the number of Channel crossings on canoes tripled in 2021, with more than 28,000 migrants arriving in England.
