The French Navy has rescued 41 refugees in the English Channel who got into distress in their small boats when crossing to Great Britain.
In a first case, capsized people were already floating in the water on Wednesday when the Navy and a sea rescue ship rushed to help, the sea prefecture announced. A helicopter was used to search the water for other victims. A little later, another naval ship rescued another group of refugees from their boat. The 41 rescued, four of whom suffered from hypothermia, were taken to the ports of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais.
The UK saw a record number of nearly 46,000 boat migrants last year. That is about 17,000 more than in the previous year and more than ever before in one year. Paris and London recently agreed to jointly step up the fight against unwanted migration. As it became known on Monday, 3,793 people traveled irregularly from France via the English Channel to Great Britain in the first quarter of this year. That is about a fifth less than in the same period last year.
