One migrant died and another was seriously injured off the coast of Gravelines (northern France) after the boat in which they were trying to cross the English Channel with more than 60 people sank.
In total, 66 people were rescued, French maritime authorities told France Presse.
The seriously injured man “in danger of death” was taken by helicopter to the Calais hospital, the same source indicated in a statement.
On Thursday night, the Regional Operational Center for Maritime Surveillance and Safeguarding was informed “that a boat with migrants” on board was in difficulty “less than eight kilometers from the coast of Grand Fort”, near Gravelines, and which transported more than sixty people.
The authorities sent a rescue ship to help the shipwrecked people who arrived in the area after midnight.
Approaching the damaged rubber boat, the crew reported that some people were “in the water.”
The rescued castaways were transported to the port of Calais but searches continue in the area with aerial and maritime means involved.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is expected to arrive in Calais this morning, where he will meet with authorities involved in the fight against illegal immigration.
Since the 1990s, and following the closure of a Red Cross center in Sangatte (Pas-de-Calais) in 2002, hundreds of migrants and refugees have been left living in tents and makeshift shelters in Calais and Dunkirk.
Many of these people tried to move to England hidden in trucks or precarious boats.
Since January, around 29,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the English Channel in small boats to England.
Source: TSF
