A total of 254 candidates for exile in England transferred in the English Channel over the past four days have been rescued, the Channel’s Maritime Prefecture (northern France) said, a sign departures are picking up.
In the first seven months of the year, 533 attempted boat crossings to England involving 18,763 migrants were recorded, more than 50% more than the same period in 2021, an already record year in which 12,100 people were counted, according to the same source.
On August 14, a French Navy patrol boat rescued 63 shipwrecked people. The following night, a French Coast Guard patrol boat rescued 40 people.
On the evening of August 16, a Dunkirk National Sea Rescue Society canoe was mobilized to bring 50 passengers ashore from a routed clandestine boat.
And on the night of the 16th/17th, a French Navy patrol boat rescued 62 people while a rescue tug rescued 39 others.
According to British figures released on Sunday, the number of migrants illegally crossing the Channel to England since the start of the year has even surpassed 20,000 and is heading for a new record despite repeated plans by the British government to try to break it to end.
The dangerous clandestine crossings of the English Channel, one of the busiest sea routes in the world, have become a regular source of tension between Paris and London, especially since Brexit.
London has struck a very controversial deal with Rwanda to send asylum seekers who have arrived illegally on British soil to that East African country.
Although none of these evictions have yet taken place – a first flight scheduled for June was canceled following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – candidates to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have both pledged to continue the policy .