HOLLAND – A fisherman from Urk in Flevoland saved 21 people attempting to cross the English Channel on Sunday night. Among them were a six-week-old baby, and two toddlers, according to several Dutch media reports, though one French authority said a total of 19 migrants were rescued, including 16 men, one woman, and two children.
All were “safe and sound, though some of those rescued at sea were suffering from hypothermia, said the Premar Manche, the French administrative region covering the Channel. The Dutch fisherman involved said the migrants would never have made the remaining 60 kilometers across the Channel to the United Kingdom.
“I saw the despair in their eyes. If we had arrived half an hour later, the boat would have sunk,” said Dutch sea captain Tiemen Wezelman. He said the tiny boat was reported in distress as his crew aboard the Z182 Hennie fishing ship was headed back to Oostende, Belgium to offload their catch.
