The UK-bound migrants were travelling in two separate inflatable boats when they were stopped by French authorities on Thursday morning. Emergency services were alerted to the first incident at around 6am on Thursday after a boat carrying 11 men sent out a distress signal issued by the migrants themselves, the maritime prefecture said in a statement. The men were then handed over to French border police.
Several hours later, at around 9am, a witness called emergency services after spotting a boat in distress. Nineteen migrants – 12 adults and seven minors – were rescued after the boat’s engine failed and were later handed over to immigration officials.
One person was “suffering from mild hypothermia” but all are now “safe and sound,” the prefecture said.
Police patrols on France’s northern beaches were intensified earlier this month after the grim discovery of the bodies of two young Iraqis believed to have been washed ashore following a failed bid to cross the Channel into the UK.
A passerby found the body of a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd on a beach in Le Touquet, some 40 miles from the port of Calais, a location which has long served as a launch pad for migrants seeking to enter Britain hidden in lorries, trains and ferries.
Hours later, another passerby spotted the body of a second migrant, a 22-year-old Iraqi, on the same beach.
The two youths “probably came from the same boat,” which was found next to the body of the younger migrant, the French regional security department said.
Police found two oars inside the rubber dinghy, and a canister of fuel and a life vest nearby.
Hours after the two bodies were found, French and British officials announced an “enhanced” action plan, saying French police would deploy 45 officers a day on the beach – double the previous amount – in a bid to intercept migrants attempting to set sail.
New surveillance equipment including high resolution cameras is also being used while British border officials have been sent to France to warn migrants against undertaking the perilous crossing, explaining that there was no guarantee of asylum once they reached the UK.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said last month that urgent action was needed to tackle the spike in crossings, adding that the government was ramping up efforts to tackle smuggling gangs through better intelligence sharing with the French.
The Home Office has also warned anyone crossing the Channel in a small boat was taking a “huge risk with their life and the lives of their children”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a similar warning in August, saying that the UK would send back migrants who illegally cross the Channel from France.
“We will send you back,” Mr Johnson said when asked by reporters what his message was to illegal immigrants.
He added: “The UK should not be regarded as a place where you can automatically come and break the law by seeking to arrive illegally.”
The rapidly growing number of people attempting to cross the Channel from France in small fishing boats has been declared a “major incident”.
A wave of migrant camp evictions in northern France is thought to be behind the most recent surge in crossings.
But Britain’s looming exit from the bloc has also been blamed, with French officials saying that migrants were wrongly being told by smugglers that the route would close after Brexit.
Maritime authorities in northern France say over 1,400 migrants have tried to reach Britain’s shores by sea between January and August this year, compared with 586 for the whole of 2018.