In the English Channel, rescuers to the aid of migrants fear reaching “the breaking point”
From now on, smugglers, police, rescuers, associations, scrutinize the strength of the wind and the height of the waves in the English Channel. When the sea is flat, everyone thinks: “It’s a time of migrants. And they stand ready.
Since 2018, the number of Channel crossings in makeshift boats has exploded. This year, more than 23,000 migrants have managed to reach the English coast from the French coast. And more than 7,000 were rescued in distress and brought ashore, on the French side. By way of comparison, over the same period, 34,000 people reached Spain via the Strait of Gibraltar and the Canary Islands; and less than 8,000 arrived in Europe through the Greek islands. Figures that say a lot about the extent of a phenomenon that was thought to be reserved for the Mediterranean.
While winter is approaching, and the water temperature is dropping, crossing records continue to be broken. And drain their share of deaths by drowning or hypothermia. This year, three people have died and four others have disappeared, according to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea. Some sailors fear an even heavier toll. The tidal currents are such in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais that they carry the bodies north. In January, Norwegian police found the corpse of a fifteen-month-old baby on their shores who had disappeared in the English Channel on October 27, 2020. On that day, his entire family, Kurds from Iran, had perished in the sinking of their boat.
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It is 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, November 16, when volunteers from the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM) in Dunkirk (North) receive an alert. Less than twenty minutes later, ten of them boarded the association's boat, a 17-meter all-weather canoe. The regional operational center for surveillance and rescue (Cross) Gris-Nez (Pas-de-Calais), which coordinates all rescue operations in the area, warned them that a boat with 32 people on board, including a baby , request assistance. Its last known position places it off Calais (Pas-de-Calais), about an hour's sail.
Since the beginning of the year, the Dunkirk SNSM has carried out 45 rescues, compared to 19 in 2020. That night and during the day on Tuesday, 272 people will be rescued in total, by state means , other SNSM boats and a merchant ship. And more than 1,000 will join England.
“I just hoped they made it alive”
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