New Channel tragedy: Six Afghans died when a boat carrying about sixty migrants attempted to reach England sank on Saturday, and one or two passengers were still missing as of the afternoon, less than two years after the deadliest shipwreck in the region.
The six who died were Afghan men in their 30s, Boulogne-sur-Mer deputy prosecutor Philippe Sabatier told AFP. The passengers are “almost all Afghans, some Sudanese” and among them “some minors,” he added.
A total of 58 to 59 survivors were rescued, 36 on the French side and 22 to 23 by the British Coast Guard, as the English Channel and North Sea (Premar) Sea Prefecture described in a new report at 4 p.m. local time (2 p.m. local time). MEDIUM GREENWICH ERA).
“A maximum of two people could still be missing and are therefore still being searched for at sea”, with two ships, a helicopter and an airplane being mobilized on the French side. Initially, the public prosecutor had reported five to ten missing persons.
Seven people who landed in Calais (northern France) with minor injuries were taken to hospital, the others were questioned by the police.
One of the victims was evacuated by helicopter to Calais hospital in the morning and the other five were treated by the National Society for Sea Rescue (SNSM) canoe Notre-Dame du Risban.
“My thoughts are with the victims,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne responded to X (ex-Twitter), hailing “the commitment of the rescue teams mobilized around the @MarineNationale”.
The French Minister of the Sea, Hervé Berville, was expected in the port of Calais in the afternoon. He will then go to the Regional Operational Center for Maritime Surveillance and Rescue (CROSS) Gris Nez, the epicenter of rescue operations in the region.
“My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this tragic loss,” said UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Two British ships participated in the rescue.
According to the prosecution, the boat was shipwrecked in calm seas off Sangatte in Pas-de-Calais. It was reportedly stopped by a merchant ship “at the end of the night” and spotted sinking “very early in the morning” by the public patrol boat Cormoran, Premar reported.
The boat, “probably an unsuitable rubber dinghy for the number of passengers”, is being inspected, according to Mr. Sabatier.
Firefighters and police mobilized early in the morning at the port of Calais, where hearses arrived after the Cormorans and SNSM canoe were docked, an AFP journalist noted. The survivors were taken by bus to a prefectural emergency room.
A spokesman for the migrant aid association Utopia56 referred to the “repression” against this migration traffic, which “increases the danger of the crossings and forces people to take more and more risks”.
According to a source familiar with the matter, authorities estimate that there are currently a thousand migrants waiting to pass through France’s north coast.
Since Wednesday evening, attempts to cross had multiplied thanks to the return of good weather. The UK Home Office recorded 755 arrivals on Thursday, a single-day record since the beginning of the year.
According to a count by AFP, more than 100,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel since the ‘small boats’ phenomenon developed in 2018 in response to the lockdown of the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel.
In 2022, a record year, 45,000 people made the crossing despite the dangers in the Pas-de-Calais strait, one of the busiest in the world, and the death of at least 27 migrants aged 7 in November 2021. at 46 years in the deadliest shipwreck in the area.
In 2022, five migrants are still dead at sea and four are missing.
As part of the judicial investigation into the 2021 sinking, eleven suspected smugglers and seven soldiers – five from the Cross Gris Nez and two crew members of the patrol boat “Le Flamant” – have been charged.
The tragedy had created tensions between Paris and London, who had since agreed to step up their fight against this migratory traffic, prompting the British government to redouble its resolve.