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Afghan migrant tries to cross English Channel on raft

Illegal migrant tried to get the Britain by homemade triangular raft, for the construction of which he took only six planks

© EPA/PATRICE AIM

PARIS, May 6. /ITAR-TASS/. Coastguards have detained illegal migrants from Afghanistan in Calais in northern France. He was arrested on the high seas while trying to swim across the English Channel towards the UK.

"He drifted toward Cape Blanc - not along the coast town of Sangatte near Calais," said the head of the local rescue station Bernard Barron. According to him, 23 -year-old Afghan man was discovered by his colleagues in the middle of the day and brought safely to the shore. Such incidents are "quite rare in our neighborhood", Barron said.

Illegal migrant tried to get the Britain by homemade triangular raft, for the construction of which he took only six planks. In the middle of the raft he secured canvas bag that held it afloat. The raft was powered by the sails created from white sheets hanging on the rod.

According to the head of the rescue station of Calais, the Afghan man had no chances to overcome the English Channel successfully, where huge ships runs daily. "The strong streams and winds making it impossible to cross the Strait of even a rowboat, " Barron said.

"If the wind heaved at least one point on the Beaufort scale, he would have flopped over and died," Barron added.

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