France Rescues 72 Migrants in English Channel

MARITIME authorities in France rescued 72 migrants that were stranded in the English Channel on Sunday.

Early on Sunday morning, the coastguard was alerted to several boats having trouble off the coast of Calais, France. The vessels ran into difficulties as they were trying to reach the UK.

38 migrants in one of the vessels were picked up by a French patrol boat and taken to Calais. 34 more migrants were rescued by a tugboat operated by the French Navy before being taken to Boulogne-sure-Mer.

All of the rescued migrants were handed over to rescue services and border police and were said to be in good health.

The number of Channel crossings has increased sharply since 2018 as migrants try to reach Britain in spite of the dangers linked to strong currents, low water temperatures and busy shipping traffic.

There were around 9,500 crossings or attempted crossings in 2020, according to the coastguard, which is four times the numbers in 2019.

Last year, six people died and three went missing trying to cross, in comparison to four dead in 2019.

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