Paris | The French association for aid to exiles Utopia 56 announced on Monday that it had lodged a complaint against the French maritime prefect of the Channel but also against two French and British relief officials after the sinking which claimed the lives of 27 migrants at the end of November.
The complaint for “manslaughter” and “failure to provide assistance”, revealed by the newspaper Le Monde and that AFP was able to consult, was filed Friday with the Paris prosecutor.
It targets the maritime prefect Philippe Dutrieux, the director of the Gris-Nez Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Center (Cross) Marc Bonnafous, and the English maritime rescue director (Her Majesty’s Coastguards) Claire Hugues.
“According to the testimonies of the two survivors, relatives of deceased people and people who made the crossing on the same day,” distress calls would have been made to the French and English rescue services “before the bodies were discovered by a boat from fishing “, Utopia 56 explained in a press release.” No help would have been immediately brought to them “, denounces the association.
The bodies of 27 migrants – eighteen men, seven women, a 16-year-old teenager and a 7-year-old child, mostly Iraqi Kurds – were recovered on November 24 in the English Channel.
Only two men, an Iraqi Kurd and a Sudanese, according to the French Interior Ministry, were able to be rescued.
According to the Iraqi Kurdish survivor, 33 people were on board. He had reported to Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw that the migrants had telephoned French and British help when their boat began to sink.
The help had not been triggered, French and English transferring responsibility for the intervention, the survivor had assured. His words were confirmed by the second survivor, specifies the complaint.
Utopia 56 denounces in this complaint “negligence of the French and British rescue services at sea” that the association notes “regularly”.
Utopia 56 hopes that with this procedure “all light will be shed on the circumstances of this shipwreck”. She regrets that the investigation opened in France appears to “focus primarily on the role of smugglers”, and that the United Kingdom does not seem to have launched any investigation.
The investigation for “help with irregular entry and stay in an organized group”, “homicide and involuntary injuries” and “criminal association” was entrusted on Friday to investigating judges in France.