A navy patrol boat was reported to have been with the migrants last night The inflatable boat fell into the sea off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France after being hit by high winds.
The initial alert was given at 4:30 a.m. local time, and a helicopter arrived on the scene about 30 minutes later. Rescuers found several “floating in the water, others still clinging to the rubber boat.”
Of those rescued, 14 were saved by a fishing vessel and the rest by a French naval vessel. “All evacuees were brought ashore in Boulogne and treated by emergency services,” the guard said.
Jacques Billant, mayor of the Pas-de-Calais region, told reporters Nine people were in critical condition And only one person on board was wearing a life jacket when the ship sank.
“Some of the others had bicycle tubes” that served as floats, he added. “We see week after week, overcrowded boats like this, boats of very poor quality: poorly inflated, without life jackets.”
“They are underpowered vessels, which obviously increases the risk of damage and sinking,” he explained.
The mayor of Pas-de-Calais added More than 1,000 police officers are currently deployed across France’s north coast “In response to increasing aggression from smugglers and migrants.”
The new British government wants to stop crossings
“It’s really scary”, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said to describe the incident. “Criminal gangs make huge profits by putting lives at risk.”
“We are accelerating action with our international partners to pursue and eliminate dangerous trafficking groups,” the official added.
Earlier this week, The new Labor government has put forward plans to tackle the small boat crisis.
The Home Secretary said she would appoint a head of the UK Border Patrol within weeks, hoping the new system could reduce the number of small boats crossing the English Channel.
Dozens of deaths since the start of the year
UK Home Office figures show 484 migrants crossed the English Channel between Monday and Tuesday.
On 18th June, 882 people crossed the canal in 15 small boats, what a new record this year. This daily count was the highest since October 2022.
In total, more than 13,000 have arrived in the UK across the Channel since the start of the year. However, during the same period More than two dozen migrants died trying to reach landAccording to data from the International Organization for Migration.
Among the victims this year was a seven-year-old girl who died in March when a small boat capsized a few kilometers off the coast of Dunkirk.
A month later, five people died, including another seven-year-old girl, when a boat carrying 112 migrants sank on a sandbar after leaving Wimereux near Boulogne.
w/agencies
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”