(Lille) Four people were indicted on Saturday in France for “manslaughter” and imprisoned after the death of a man and a woman in a shipwreck on Wednesday in the English Channel, while trying to reach England, he said. we learned from the prosecution.
These people, two Iraqis and two Sudanese, were also charged with “aiding the entry and illegal stay of an organized gang”, “unintentional injury” and “endangering the lives of others”.
Aged around thirty, the two victims were on board a boat where around sixty people were crowded.
The boat capsized shortly after leaving a beach in Pas-de-Calais, according to the prosecution. The other 58 castaways were brought ashore, some in a state of hypothermia.
According to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Prémar), these are the seventh and eighth deaths at sea since the start of the year “in connection with the migratory phenomenon”.
The others date back to August 12, when six Afghans aged 21 to 34 lost their lives in a shipwreck, the deadliest in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais since that of November 24, 2021. At least 27 migrants then perished.
According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office, several boats left this beach on Wednesday morning, despite the presence of the gendarmes, who failed to prevent all departures.
According to Prémar, the boat found itself in difficulty “less than a kilometer from the beach”.
Six boats were mobilized, as well as a helicopter, to locate the two missing who could not then be revived.