At least six people were killed when a refugee boat capsized as it tried to cross the English Channel from France to Great Britain in the early hours of this Saturday morning. The rescue work continues as one or two shipwrecked people are still missing, while another 58 or 59 have been rescued and treated by the rescue services: 36 on the French side and between 22 and 23 by the British Coastguard, the Maritime Prefecture of La Mancha and the North Sea (Premar ).
By mid-morning, “six people had been recovered in serious condition and one of them was evacuated by helicopter to Calais hospital and pronounced dead,” Premar said in a press release. The deaths of the other five fatalities, who were picked up by a lifeboat belonging to France’s National Sea Rescue Service (SNSM), were confirmed when the ship transporting them docked in Calais port. Philippe Sabatier, deputy prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, said the six dead were Afghans in their 30s. The passengers are “almost all Afghans, including some Sudanese,” and among them are “some minors,” he added. According to Sabatier, a maximum of two people could still be missing, which is why they are still being searched for at sea. Initially, the public prosecutor’s office had estimated the number of missing at five to ten.
“My thoughts are with the victims,” wrote Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on the social network X (formerly Twitter) and praised “the commitment of the mobilized rescue teams”. Borne added that Secretary of State for Maritime Affairs Hervé Berville will travel to Calais.
On the French side, three ships, a helicopter and an airplane are involved in the search to cover the area as best as possible. Two other British ships are also taking part in the rescue operations.
According to prosecutors, the boat sank off Sangatte in the Pas de Calais on the north coast of France “around 2 a.m.”. The first rescued people to reach the country were 39 of those affected and left the French Navy patrol boat “Cormorant” in the port of Calais. The other survivors were helped by the British Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, numerous fire engines and police forces have moved into the port of Calais, where civil protection tents have also been set up to support the survivors.
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Since Wednesday night, more migrant boats have been spotted making erratic attempts to cross the English Channel from the north coast of France due to favorable weather conditions. In fact, Premar reported the rescue of 116 people, including children, from three different boats during the night from Thursday to Friday.
For its part, Britain’s Home Office reported that 755 migrants were spotted making the perilous journey to the coast on Thursday, a daily record since the start of the year.
More than 100,000 people have crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats since 2018, according to a census carried out by Agence France Presse using official UK figures. Of these, 84,500 attempted to cross it in 2022, 44,000 of whom succeeded, according to data from the European Commission. The closure of the Port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel Terminal has made illegal people smuggling by truck all but impossible, prompting smugglers to choose the sea route.
The Pas de Calais road, one of the busiest in the world, has been the scene of several tragedies in recent years, but that hasn’t dampened migrants’ determination to embark on the perilous journey. In 2022, five died at sea and four were reported missing while attempting to cross to Britain. The deadliest shipwreck occurred in November 2021 when at least 27 people aged 7 to 46 perished when their ship went down. This tragedy created tensions between Paris and London, which agreed to step up their fight against this migratory traffic.
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