psychological monitoring for rescuers mobilized on Channel crossings

While rescuers are regularly called to operations during attempts to cross the Channel, Civil Protection has set up a listening device to ensure their psychological monitoring.

Interventions that rescuers need to talk about. Since the start of the year, 12 rescuers from the Civil Protection of Pas-de-Calais have been subject to psychological monitoring given their interventions on shipwrecks or boats in difficulty. In 2024, 67 migrants will die during attempts to cross the Channel.

Franck Lhoez has been a volunteer at the Béthune Civil Protection for six months and remains marked by an intervention in which he participated on July 17 in Calais.

“The first thing I saw was a body getting off the boat,” he tells BFM Grand Littoral. “It's not necessarily what struck me the most, it was taking care of a pregnant woman. She was cold, she was coming out of the water, and I remember her look when I told her gave me a pocket of warmth.”

“A very special listen”

The well-being of its rescuers is today a priority for Civil Protection. “We insist on paying attention to ourselves, but also to our teammates,” explains Salomé Pinelle, executive assistant and civil protection trainer, who herself has more than 120 operations to her credit. “To see, during an intervention, if there was a change in behavior, if there was a withdrawal during an intervention.”

In light of the recurring shipwrecks in the Channel – three people died again on October 23 in the sinking of a boat off the coast of Sangatte – the psychological monitoring of rescuers is a major issue.

“It's very complicated to sometimes arrive and have people seriously injured, or even dead, who have to be taken care of with families, children, sometimes very young. All of that is very traumatic.” underlines Adam Beernaert, Director General of Civil Protection of Pas-de-Calais.

Civil Protection has therefore set up a unique listening device for its rescuers. “The support and listening system has already existed since 2016, even before. But in this crisis, which is an exceptional crisis, we have put in place a unique system, with very special listening.”

This weekend again, 35 volunteers were involved in an intervention to rescue around sixty shipwreck victims.