SULAIMANI (ESTA) — French authorities said on Friday they rescued 138 migrants stranded in the Channel as they tried to reach Britain from France on makeshift vessels.
In a statement, French authorities said they were informed on Thursday that “many boats trying to cross the Channel were in trouble”, according to AFP.
Two navy vessels and two lifeboats brought the migrants back to shore, they added.
Police and local authorities in northern France received the migrants after their rescue, AFP reported.
Last month, twenty-seven migrants, mostly people from the Kurdistan Region, died when their boat foundered near the French port of Calais.
On Tuesday, French authorities said 16 of the victims were people from the Kurdistan Region.
The others were from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iran and Egypt.
Two other migrants from the Kurdistan Region have gone missing, the Summit Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs said on Tuesday.
The accident was the most deadly involving a migrant boat in the Channel and cast a spotlight on the increasing number of desperate people seeking to cross the narrow waterway between France and England.
