Forty People Rescued In Waters Of Dover Strait Near France's Shore - Maritime Authority

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th December, 2021) French rescuers saved 40 people aboard a ship in the waters of the Strait of Dover between the United Kingdom and France in the early hours of Monday, the French Maritime Prefecture of the English Channel and the North Sea said.

"On Sunday night, December 26, to early Monday, December 27, 2021, the regional operational center for monitoring and rescuing (CROSS), based on the Gris-Nez cape, was informed about a vessel in distress that was in the Dunkirk sector. After that, the CROSS sent a state Flamant patrolling ship of the national navy, which picked up 40 people aboard," the prefecture said in a statement published on Twitter.

All the rescuees were taken to the port of Calais, where border guards, firefighters, and emergency service workers tended to them.

In late November, 243 migrants were rescued when crossing the same body of water in boats, and a couple days earlier, 272 more people were saved there, according to the maritime prefecture.

Also in November, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that at least 31 migrants were killed after a boat crossing the Strait of Dover sank. Police arrested four suspects in organizing the illegal transfer of migrants, the minister added.