Faced with the explosion of attempts by migrants to cross, France has increased the nautical resources present in the area. A new organisation that allows the SNSM (French equivalent of the RNLI) to breathe a little.
Migrants wishing to cross the Channel are ever more numerous. In the months of August and September alone, the number of people intercepted by the services of the State action at sea exploded to more than 9,000 people in August, and even more in September. The boats are busier than before: between 50 and 60 people boarding. More than 37,500 people were counted in the first nine months of the year, which is already higher than the number of crossings recorded for (all of 2021), assures Veronique Magnin, spokesperson for the maritime prefect of the Channel and North Sea.
In 2021, 35,300 people had thus attempted to cross the strait. The SNSM report in Dunkirk notes, however, that it is less regularly called upon to intervene. "We were pushed to the limit of our capacity. Over the last four months of 2021, we
intervened during 46 operations to rescue 736 people. We have a long been on the front line. But after the tragedy of November 24 (Editor’s note - 27 people died following the sinking of their boat), there was a reorganisation of the State's resources at sea," said Alain Ledaguenel, president of the Dunkirk rescue centre.
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| The AIS trace from March 1st - Nov 9th 2022 for the Jean Bart II |
However, the SNSM station has not been idle. As of August 31, it had intervened to rescue nearly 400 migrants. “It's fewer interventions, but with more and more aggressiveness. The mafia organization of smugglers is extremely violent", continues Alain Ledaguenel, recalling a time, before the migration crisis of 2016, when the rescue of candidates for exile concerned about twenty people per year. The teams will however be able to take a break from their all-weather vessel, the Jean Bart II, which is being refitted.
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| The AIS trace from April 1st - Nov 9th 2022 for the Abeille Normandie |
For Alain Ledaguenel, the SNSM has often found itself on the front line this autumn at the Damen yard in Dunkirk. The repeated stresses caused premature wear of the vessel. While the judicial inquiry into the drama of November 24 is underway, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea confirms a densification of the means of (all the administrations contributing to the action of the State at sea.)
"There are two patrol boats permanently positioned in the Channel in addition to Abeille Normandie."The French Navy also systematically has a ship in the Channel, and there is always a patrol boat near the area."
To ensure this continuity, the building of metropolitan support and assistance Garonne also intervened this summer, such as the mine warfare vessel Thetis. The Argonaute, usually based in Cherbourg, reinforces the system on an ad hoc basis in the Pas de Calais and the Jeanne Barret, patrol boat Des Affaires Maritimes inaugurated on March 11 and based in Le Havre, is currently located in the Channel.
Moving to the south
The reorganisation of the State system at sea also regularly leads the coastal patrol boats of the maritime gendarmerie (the Athos, Maroni and Oyapock) to position themselves off the Opal coast. The customs coastguard Jacques Oudart Fourmentin, based in Le Havre, is also called upon in this migration crisis.
“The strengthening of the system on land and the various dismantling of networks of smugglers encourage those wishing to cross to go further south. Boarding points are regularly observed as far as Le Touquet and more rarely as far as Dieppe,” explains the maritime prefecture.
Story courtesy of Virainip Wojtkowski in Le Marin.
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