New tragedy in the Channel: four people drowned on Tuesday (October 27) in the sinking of a boat conveying twenty migrants en route to the English coast, the North prefecture reported late in the afternoon. This report, still provisional, brings the number of deaths in these waters to seven for 2020, but this number could increase.
Among the victims are a woman and two children, aged 5 and 8, in addition to a drowned man discovered in the morning. The prefecture had indicated earlier that among the 17 people who survived in the morning, three were in cardio-respiratory arrest, including the two children who have since died.
Fifteen other castaways, of Iranian nationality, according to the first elements were taken care of by the hospitals of Calais and Dunkirk including a man in absolute emergency but whose vital prognosis is no longer engaged, added the prefecture. The search was stopped at nightfall, without having made it possible to find other possible castaways, indicated the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea.
An investigation is being carried out by the public prosecutor of Dunkirk in order to identify the causes of this shipwreck. The investigation, entrusted to the border police, was opened for qualifiers of homicide and unintentional injuries, said the prosecution.
Boat of twenty people
The boat, apparently a day fishing boat, had been reported turning and sinking around 9:30 a.m., in heavy weather, by an English boater, triggering a vast search operation which continued at the start of the year. afternoon with six boats and three air assets mobilized.
At midday, the sub-prefect, Hervé Tourmente, had reported that the exact number of passengers remained to be specified, “From 19 to 20”, specifying that the weather conditions for this crossing “Were not favorable at all”.
British Home Secretary Priti Patel has expressed her sadness for the tragedy, which highlights “Evidence the dangers” migratory crossings of the English Channel. “I will do everything in my power to prevent unscrupulous criminals from exploiting vulnerable people”, she added.
Crossings are increasing
The thirty kilometers which separate the French Opal Coast from the limestone cliffs of Dover, visible on a clear day on the British coast, are renowned as one of the busiest and most dangerous sea routes in the world.
However, since 2018, attempts to cross have multiplied. Between the 1er January and August 31, 6,200 migrants – according to the French maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea – tried their luck, on an inflatable boat for the better-off, a paddle, a kayak or a simple buoy for the other.
In 2019, 2,358 people attempting the crossing were rescued and then brought back to the French or British coasts, against 586 in 2018. The first to perish in these waters was probably Mitra M., Iranian, 31 years old, holder of a master’s degree. of psychology, who embarked on August 9, 2019 on an inflatable boat alongside 19 Iraqi and Iranian migrants, including seven minors.
In the summer of 2019, an Iraqi man was also found dead off Zeebrugge (Belgium) after attempting a swim crossing while two other men, also Iraqis, were found dead on a beach in Touquet-Paris-Plage (Pas-de-Calais).
While waiting for a passage, the candidates continue to flow to Calais and Grande-Synthe, where they settle in makeshift camps, regularly evacuated by the prefectures of Nord and Pas-de-Calais for a “Shelter”. At the end of September, the police dismantled a huge camp near the Calais hospital where some 800 people lived, after another major operation on July 10.