Now, smugglers, police officers, rescuers, associations, scrutinize the force 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 are standing by.
Since 2018, crossings of the Channel aboard makeshift boats have exploded. This year, more than 23,000 migrants 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 via the Greek islands. Figures that say a lot about the scale of a phenomenon that was thought to be reserved for the Mediterranean. As winter draws near, and the water temperature drops, crossing records continue to be broken. And drain their share of deaths by drowning or hypothermia. This year, three people died and four others 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 15-month-old baby on its shores who had disappeared in the English Channel on October 27, 2020. That day, his entire family, Kurds of Iran, had perished in the sinking of their boat.
It was 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday November 16 when the volunteers of the National Society for Rescue at Sea (SNSM) in Dunkirk (North) received an alert. Less than twenty minutes later, ten of them board the association’s boat, a 17-meter all-weather canoe. The Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Center (Cross) of Gris-Nez (Pas-de-Calais), which coordinates all rescue operations in the area, warned them that a boat with 32 people on board, including one baby, ask for assistance. Its last known position places it off Calais (Pas-de-Calais), about an hour’s navigation.
Since the beginning of the year, the SNSM of Dunkirk has carried out 45 rescues, against 19 in 2020. That night and during the day of Tuesday, 272 people will be rescued in total, by State means, from other SNSM boats as well as a merchant ship. And more than a thousand will join England.
“I just hoped they would arrive alive”
On board the boat John Bart II, the SNSM crew spent nearly six hours at sea. In town, they are sailors, accountants, sports teachers, doctors and even professional firefighters. More and more often, they are rescuers of migrants. When they return to port, 50 castaways are disembarked. These were victims of an engine failure but during its research, the SNSM came across five other boats, especially near English waters, which refused to be helped. “There is one that was starting to deflate, testifies Anne Thorel, canoeist. I just hoped they would arrive alive. “
You have 64.61% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.