RIDENS

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Ridens rescued 19 migrants

On the night of April 11, a migrant boat got in difficulty, and the CROSS Gris-Nez deployed the 'Abeille Normandie' to locate and monitor the boat, as well as the SNSM lifeboat 'SNS-067 Mona Rigolet' from Calais. The lifeboat picked up the 28 occupants of the boat and delivered them to the dock in Calais. On the morning of April 12, the CROSS Gris-Nez CROSS was informed of another migrant boat heading towards the Malo-les-Bains area and deployed the 'Ridens' to monitor the it. Once near the boat, some of the occupants requested assistance. The 'Ridens' rescued 19 people from the boat, while the remaining occupants continued on their way. At midday, the CROSS was once again informed of the departure of a boat from the Hardelot area, and engaged the 'DFP1 Jacques Oudart Fourmentin' to locate and monitor it. Once on site, the customs vessel rescued three occupants from the boat. Several people still on board refused any assistance and continued on their way. The three rescued people were dropped off at the quay in Boulogne-sur-Mer. In total, 50 people were rescue and safely brought to the ashore, where they were taken into care by land-based rescue services.

168 boat people rescued in numerous responses

During the night of March 20 to March 21, 2025, numerous migrant boat departures were reported to the CROSS Gris-Nez. Early on the evening of March 20, 2025, the CROSS Gris-Nez engaged the 'Minck' to locate a boat reported in the Slack dunes area. Once in the area, the 'Minck' monitored the boat. Faced with an engine failure, the migrants requested the rescue by the 'Minck', which picked up 62 people on board. They were dropped off at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in the middle of the night. The CROSS Gris-Nez then engaged the 'Abeille Normandie' off the coast of Slack. Following a request for assistance from some of the migrants, the tug rescued 35 people on board, including two injured people and one unconscious person. The CROSS deployed the French Navy's Dauphin helicopter based in Le Touquet to evacuate the unconscious person, whose condition was stable from the 'Abeille Normandie'. The Dauphin hoisted the victims and transported them to the hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer, where they were treated in the middle of the night. The people rescued by the 'Abeille Normandie' were taken back to Boulogne-sur-Mer early in the morning, where they were treated by the firefighters. Meanwhile, the remaining people on board the migrant boat, who did not request assistance, continued on their way, remaining under the surveillance of French resources. In the middle of the night, the CROSS Gris-Nez then engaged the 'Jeanne Barret' and the 'SNS 076-Président Jacques Huret' from the Boulogne-sur-Mer SNSM station to locate a precarious boat in the Cran-Poulet area. The 'Abeille Normandie' was also deployed to support these resources. Once the overloaded boat was located, the 'Jeanne Barret' and the 'Abeille Normandie' launched their tenders to rescue all migrants who requested assistance. 63 people were thus picked up by the 'Jeanne Barret', which dropped them off at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer early in the morning. Finally, also in the middle of the night, off the coast of Dunkirk, the CROSS Gris-Nez engaged the 'Ridens', which rescued eight people from a boat, wile the rest of the migrants continued on their way without requesting assistance. The 'Ridens' continued its surveillance until the early morning, and then headed for Calais to disembark the eight rescued people at the quayside. 168 boat people were rescued, including three injured people treated by land rescue services and the Boulogne-sur-Mer hospital.

Numerous rescue operations for migrant boats

On the night of March 19, numerous departures of migrant boats were reported to the CROSS Gris-Nez, which initially engaged the 'Ridens' in the Dunkirk Channel to monitor an overloaded, precarious boat that had left the west port of Dunkirk at 11:30 p.m., with approximately 40 people on board. At around 3:00 a.m., the boat picked up a new group of people on the coast of Gravelines. The 'Ridens' rescued three people in difficulty in the water, then a group of 12 people aboard the boat requesting evacuation. Among those rescued, one was unconscious. The CROSS Gris-Nez immediately deployed the French Navy's Dauphin helicopter based in Le Touquet, with a medical team from the SMUR from Boulogne-sur-Mer on board, as well as the lifeboat 'SNS 276- Notre-Dame des Flandres', based in Gravelines. The unconscious person was treated by the medical team, which was hoisted aboard the 'Ridens'. The medical treatment was unsuccessful in resuscitating the person, who was declared deceased. The 15 people were disembarked at the port of Gravelines by the lifeboat and taken care of by the emergency services on land. An investigation was opened by the Dunkirk prosecutor's office. The 'Ridens' continued to monitor the boat as it made its way towards the United Kingdom with approximately 80 people on board. After coordinating the rescue of two migrants who had fallen overboard and were evacuated to Boulogne-sur-Mer, the CROSS Gris-Nez continued to monitor the boat on which the two rescued individuals had attempted to board earlier on the morning. At midday, following a request for assistance from the migrants, the patrol boat 'Jeanne Barret' rescued the occupants of the boat and initially took 11 people on board, including one unconscious person, while the lifeboat 'SNS 076-Président Jacques Huret' from the Boulogne-sur-Mer SNSM station reinforced the resources on site. While the 'Jeanne Barret' rescued the migrants from the precarious boat, the lifeboat, after having arrived on the scene, provided medical care to the person who had regained consciousness and two other migrants. All 50 people rescued from the boat were taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer by mid-afternoon and treated by land-based rescue services. On March 19, 2025, shortly after 9:00 a.m., the CROSS Gris-Nez was informed that a group of people attempting to board an rubber boat for an attempt to cross the Strait of Dover was in difficulty in the Equihen beach area. The boat had set sail an hour earlier near Hardelot-Plage. The 'Jeanne Barret', initially deployed by the CROSS Gris-Nez for surveillance, and the National Gendarmerie's RHIB 'Ouranos' were dispatched to the scene. Once on site, two people were detected in the water. One was rescued by the 'Ouranos', suffering from hypothermia, and the other, rescued by the 'Jeanne Barret', was in cardiorespiratory arrest. Both people were evacuated to Boulogne-sur-Mer for treatment by on-shore emergency services. The person in cardiorespiratory arrest was declared deceased despite the intervention of rescue services at sea and on land. At the same time, the CROSS Gris-Nez deployed the semi-rigid 'SNS 6295 Président Jacques Lebrun' from the SNSM station in Boulogne-sur-Mer and the VCSM 'Aber Ildut' to search for possible victims at sea. Other surveillance operations were still underway off the coast of Pas-de-Calais.