Men, women and children died during a crossing of the Channel, off Calais (Pas-de-Calais), Wednesday November 24 at the beginning of the afternoon. Since 2018 and the gradual lockdown of the city’s port and the Channel Tunnel, used until then by migrants trying to reach England, the number of migratory crossings of the Channel has exploded. But the drama that took place on Wednesday is by far the deadliest. Before this sinking, the human toll since January amounted to three dead and four missing.
>> Shipwreck of migrants in the Channel: the latest information live
An investigation was opened, in particular for “homicides and involuntary injuries” and “criminal conspiracy” and five people suspected of being smugglers were arrested, said the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, Thursday morning. The executive agreed on Thursday morning on the need to deploy more resources for rescuers at sea, according to our information. Franceinfo looks back on what we know about this tragedy.
A dark inflatable boat off Calais
Around 2 p.m. Wednesday, a fisherman reported the discovery of about fifteen bodies floating off Calais. the drama took place a little earlier, when a “fifty” people, including women and children, have tried to reach England since Loon-Plage (North), near of Dunkirk, on a “longboat”, said Franck Dhersin, vice-president of the Hauts-de-France region. This is a inflatable boat with a flexible bottom, the use of which by smugglers has increased since the summer.
The passengers then found themselves in cold water at 17 ° C. Both on the French and British sides, dSignificant resources were dispatched during the rescue, in particular two helicopters and three boats. According to the administration of maritime affairs, research in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais was interrupted Wednesday evening.
Despite winter temperatures, migrant crossings in makeshift boats are not weakening. As of November 20, 31,500 migrants had left the coast since the start of the year and 7,800 migrants had been rescued, according to figures cited by AFP. According to London, 22,000 migrants made the crossing over the first ten months of the year.
A very heavy toll
Rescue ships, bringing back the victims, docked in the port of Calais in the evening. “We recovered six drifting bodies”, detailed Charles Devos, the boss of the Our Lady of Risban cruiser of the Calais SNSM, describing “a downright deflated inflatable boat”.
Among the victims are 17 men, seven women and three young people, as well as two survivors, according to a statement released Thursday by the Lille prosecutor’s office. Two survivors, an Iraqi and a Somali, were hospitalized in “severe hypothermia”. Going “a little better today”, they “should be able to be heard shortly”, said the Minister of the Interior on Thursday.
As for the remains, the police began, on Wednesday evening, the identification work, before authorizing their transfer to the Lille Forensic Institute for autopsies.
Several tributes to drowned migrants are organized Thursday in France. In Calais, a fiery chapel has been installed and a “circle of silence” will take place at 6.30 pm. In Dunkirk, a solidarity rally is scheduled for 6 p.m. on the forecourt of the Urban Community. In Paris, a tribute is organized at the initiative of the Utopia association, place de la République, at 8 p.m.
Five people arrested
In view of the scale of the tragedy, the number of victims and the means that will have to be deployed, the Dunkirk prosecutor’s office has been relinquished. It is the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Lille which is responsible for of the investigation opened for “assistance with the irregular entry and stay in an organized group”, “homicide and involuntary injuries” and “criminal association”. “The wreck has been seized and will be examined to clarify the causes of the sinking”, said the prosecutor.
According to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, five people suspected of being smugglers in connection with the tragedy were arrested, including four late Wednesday afternoon and a fifth overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Gérald Darmanin, guest on RTL Thursday morning, said that this man had “a German license plate” and had “bought Zodiacs in Germany”. Before adding: “Dince January 1, we have arrested 1,500 smugglers “. .
London and Paris want to step up fight against deadly crossings
In a telephone interview on Wednesday evening, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed “the urgency of intensifying joint efforts to prevent these deadly crossings”, according to a Downing Street spokesperson. The British government on Thursday offered France joint police patrols on the French coast along the English Channel. London and Paris had already recently agreed to strengthen their efforts to stop the departures, after the arrival, on November 11, of 1,185 migrants in England.
For his part, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, “shocked, revolted and deeply saddened”, assured on Sky News to want “Do more” with France to discourage illegal crossings, pointing to Franco-British disagreements. As for the President of the Republic, he assured that “France will not leave[it] not the English Channel become a cemetery “, claiming “an emergency meeting of European ministers”. During an interministerial meeting, which took place early Thursday morning under the aegis of Prime Minister Jean Castex, it was agreed on the need to deploy more resources for rescuers at sea, to increase the number of boats and drones and to install thermal cameras in the dunes in order to prevent departures and locate boats, according to information from franceinfo.
An alarming situation denounced by associations
The reactions are also strong among the associations which support the migrants. According to Yann Manzi, the co-founder of Utopia 56, interviewed on franceinfo, the tension had been growing for several weeks, with “over-security and additional means to prevent these populations from having a future”. Over the past three months, attempts to cross the Channel on board small boats have doubled, the maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea, Philippe Dutrieux, warned on November 19..
An alarming situation that is also observed Pierre Roques, from the Auberge des migrants, a local association, to AFP: “People are dying in La Manche, which is turning into an open-air cemetery.”
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), “shocked and upset”, estimated, in a press release, that “only coordinated and united efforts (…) will make it possible to prevent new tragedies”.