What we know about the deaths of four migrants, including a 2-year-old child, during attempts to cross the Channel

Two investigations were opened on Saturday after his two attempts at clandestine crossings, which further add to the terrible toll for the year 2024.

Two new tragedies in the Channel. Four migrants died on the night of Friday October 4 to Saturday October 5, while trying to reach England aboard two boats, announced the prefect of Pas-de-Calais. “The toll is very heavy,” lamented Jacques Billant during a press briefing on Saturday afternoon. Here is what we know about this drama.

Four dead, including a 2-year-old child

During the night, two men, a woman and a child died. The latter, aged 2, was recovered unconscious on board a boat and could not be saved. According to the first elements, the child, born in Germany to a 24-year-old mother of Somali origin, summer “crushed” after a stampede in the rubber boat, reported the public prosecutor of Boulogne, Guirec Le Bras, present alongside the prefect during the press briefing.

During another crossing attempt, the sailors also discovered “three people inanimate at the bottom of a small boat, probably crushed, suffocated and drowned during the jostling in the 40 cm of water at the bottom of the inflatable boat.described Jacques Billant. They are a Vietnamese woman and two men of African origin, aged “ about 30 years old all three”.

Dozens of people rescued on these two boats

Rescue services came to the aid of two separate boats. A first, “overloaded with 90 people on board, was found in difficulty following an engine failure” off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer, reported prefect Jacques Billant. The ship Bee Normandy recovered 15 people on board, including the lifeless child. The 14 other migrants were treated, including a 17-year-old teenager who had to be hospitalized for burns to his legs, the prefect said. The other passengers in the boat wanted to continue their journey to England. “LThe maritime prefecture has set up a schedule to intervene in the event of new difficulties.”

On a second boat, also overloaded with 83 migrants on board, “several engine failures generated panic” off the coast of Calais and migrants fell into the sea, but were able to be rescued. The patrolman The Flamingo was engaged in the rescue. Twelve migrants decided to continue their journey, “before giving up and being taken over by the ship Minck“, said Jacques Billant.

The large number of migrants supported come from many countries, the prefect listed: Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and even Iraq.

Two ongoing investigations

Two investigations were opened by the Boulogne public prosecutor’s office and were entrusted to the Office for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Migrants (Oltim) and the maritime gendarmerie. The first, for aggravated manslaughter and criminal conspiracy. The second, concerning the other boat, for criminal association and “aid to foreigners in an irregular situation aggravated by the circumstances of the organized gang and the risk of disability and death”detailed prosecutor Guirec Le Bras. As part of these investigations, Oltim interviews 65 people.

Dramas that have been accumulating since the start of the year

Crossing attempts have increased since Thursday evening, due to a weather window considered favorable. “More than 250 migrants [ont été] rescued at seaIn “31 crossing attempts prevented”reported Jacques Billant. This is part of the deadliest year in the Channel (around fifty deaths) since the beginning of the phenomenon, in 2018, of crossings aboard inflatable boats. On the night of September 14 to 15, eight migrants were killed in the sinking of a boat which had just left the French coast. On September 3, at least 12 others died when their boat broke apart off Cap Gris-Nez in the worst shipwreck of the year to date.

The prefect and the prosecutor, with one voice, denounced the “criminal networks” of smugglers. Saturday morning, “to secure their profits, the unscrupulous smugglers did not hesitate to separate young children from their parents, parents to whom they did not allow access to the boat, while the child alone had already been taken by force into the boat”illustrated Jacques Billant. “I arrived in office in 2021 and, at the time, it was 30 people. Now, it is more than 65 people on average on the boats and there are no more life jackets”completed Guirec Le Bras.

On the social network “terrible drama which must make us all aware of the tragedy that is playing out. The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands and our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who enrich themselves by organizing these death crossings”.

“This morning, a child died while crossing the Channel. This is what Bruno Retailleau calls a ‘harmful consequence’ of his ‘effective’ policy carried out at the border. We will continue to denounce the culpable action of States and to support families”wrote, for its part, the association helping exiles Utopia 56.

The mayor of Portel, Olivier Barbarin, said this on franceinfo on Saturday “completely disarmed by this situation” and launched a call to “our rulers of Europe and England” to prevent “The English Channel should not be a marine cemetery”. He notably said that migrants “There were still around a hundred on Portel beach last night [vendredi à samedi] to wait for the call from smugglers”which he describes as “bastards”. They are “ready to do anything, for a few hundred euros, to try to get all these poor migrants across to England.”