Several rescue operations took place overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
Three rescues in the space of a few hours. The regional operational center for surveillance and rescue rescued 143 migrants in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, said the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea in a press release.
Three relief operations
A first intervention took place in the middle of the night. 43 people, who had taken to the sea off the beach of Merlimont, were rescued by the national sea rescue company (SNSM) of Berck. The castaways were then dropped off at Berck early in the morning. However, three people fell overboard as the boat left and were not found.
Off Leffrinckoucke this Thursday morning, a boat with 50 people on board began to sink in the middle of the sandbanks, before they were rescued. “The castaways were dropped off in Dunkirk at the end of the morning, where they were taken care of by the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) and the border police (PAF)”, indicates the prefecture.
The coastal surveillance brigade of the maritime gendarmerie of Boulogne-sur-Mer as well as the coastal maritime surveillance launch also came to the aid this morning of 45 people whose boat was adrift following several engine damage. They were dropped off at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.