Two French Navy ships and two SNSM boats intervened to recover the castaways and bring them back to the dock.
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One hundred and thirty-eight migrants, in difficulty as they tried to reach England on makeshift boats, were rescued Thursday off the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, the maritime prefecture announced on Friday (December 17th).
Two French Navy ships and two all-weather boats from the National Society for Rescue at Sea (SNSM), respectively from Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and Dunkirk (Nord), intervened to recover the 138 castaways and bring them back to the quay. The latter were taken care of by the border police (PAF) of the ports of Gravelines, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS).
Since the end of 2018, illegal crossings of the Channel by migrants seeking to reach the United Kingdom have increased. On November 24, 27 migrants died when their boat sank in the Channel, the deadliest death toll ever observed in this maritime area.