LILLE: Seventy-one migrants were intercepted on several boats in the English Channel overnight, with some needing hospitalization for hyperthermia, French and British authorities said Thursday.
French sea rescuers received an alert in the early morning hours of a boat transporting 14 migrants who needed rescuing.
They were found in a state of hyperthermia and brought to a hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France, joining eight others admitted a short while earlier, regional officials said.
The eight had taken to sea, trying to make their way to Britain, but turned back when their boat was spotted by patrollers.
British authorities, for their part, said they had rescued 49 people, including a minor, on four other boats overnight.
Over the past year, growing numbers of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia have taken to the treacherous waters of the Channel in small fishing boats or inflatable dinghies.
Rights groups have linked the crossings to a police crackdown in Calais in northern France, which has made it harder for migrants to set up camp there.
Hundreds of migrants try to enter Britain annually through the world’s busiest waterway using unsafe boats.
At least four migrants have died so far this year attempting to make the dangerous crossing in the Channel, with its strong currents and very cold waters.
71 migrants intercepted in English Channel: authorities
https://arab.news/p6p3v
71 migrants intercepted in English Channel: authorities
- French sea rescuers received an alert in the early morning hours of a boat transporting 14 migrants who needed rescuing
UK defense minister suggests Putin’s ‘hidden hand’ behind Iran tactics
LONDON: UK Defense Minister John Healey suggested on Thursday that Russia was influencing Iran’s use of drone attacks in its war with the United States and Israel.
Healey said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “hidden hand” may be behind some of the tactics deployed by Tehran in the Middle East conflict, which started when the United States and Israel struck Iran on February 28.
He told reporters that officials were analyzing an Iranian-made drone that hit the UK’s Akrotiri air force base in Cyprus on March 1 “for any evidence of Russian or any other foreign components and parts.”
“We will update you and appropriately publish any findings from that when we’ve got them,” he said during a visit to Britain’s military headquarters in Northwood, near London.
“But I think no one will be surprised to believe that Putin’s hidden hand is behind some of the Iranian tactics, potentially some of their capabilities as well, not least because one world leader that is benefiting from the sky high oil prices at the moment is Putin,” he added.
Russia is a close ally of Iran, with the two agreeing last year to help each other counter “common threats.”
US President Donald Trump said Saturday he had no indication Russia was supporting Iran in the war, but that if they were, it was not “helping much.”
Nick Perry, the British military’s chief of joint operations, told Healey there were “definitively” signs of a link between Russia and Iran, including Iran’s use of drones “as learned from the Russians.”
No one was injured when the drone hit a hangar at Akrotiri. British warplanes shot down a further two drones heading for the base the same day.
Guy Foden, a brigadier in the British army, briefed Healey that UK troops based at a military base housing international coalition troops in Irbil, Iraq, had helped shoot down two Iranian drones on Wednesday.
