(Lille) Sixty-three people were rescued at sea over the weekend as they tried to reach England in makeshift boats, French authorities said on Sunday evening.
The regional operational center for surveillance and rescue (Cross) at Cap Gris-Nez coordinated two rescue operations in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
A boat “having lost its engine in the water” was rescued off the coast of Pas-de-Calais by the boat of the National Sea Rescue Society, which brought the forty-six castaways to the coast, specifies the prefecture shipping in a press release.
A support vessel chartered by the State since April to reinforce search and rescue operations has for its part recovered 17 shipwrecked people aboard a second boat off Oye-Plage.
These operations take place a few days after the indictment of five soldiers from the Cross Gris-Nez in the investigation into the death of 27 migrants during the sinking of their boat at the end of 2021.
The five soldiers, three women and two men, were indicted Thursday in Paris for failure to assist a person in danger, and left free.
In this case, the French authorities are suspected of having been called for help fifteen times during the night of the sinking and of not having come to the aid of the migrants.
Despite the dangers of crossing one of the busiest maritime routes in the world, more candidates for exile are taking it every year.
Some 46,000 asylum seekers crossed the Channel in 2022, mostly Afghans, Iranians and Albanians, and 8,000 were rescued in French waters.