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Eight migrants die in Channel shipwreck
An overloaded boat, few life jackets, and a boat that tore apart on the rocks as soon as it reached the sea: eight migrants died on Sunday in this shipwreck, bringing to at least 46 the number of candidates for exile to Great Britain who died in the Channel in 2024. The victims of this shipwreck which occurred early in the night near Ambleteuse (Pas-de-Calais) are “men who are clearly adults”, declared the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, during a press briefing on the Ambleteuse sea wall. Six survivors were hospitalized in relative emergency, including a ten-month-old baby with hypothermia, he added. The clandestine boat had nearly 60 passengers, “from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran,” and “only one person in six was equipped with a life jacket,” Mr. Billant stressed. Having left “the Slack sector”, a coastal river whose mouth is located between Wimereux and Ambleteuse, the boat “ran aground” on a rocky point and “clearly tore itself apart on the rocks,” explained the prefect. This tragedy occurred less than two weeks after the worst shipwreck of the year in this region, which left twelve dead on September 3. According to the prefect, it brings to 46 the number of deaths in such clandestine crossings since January, confirming that 2024 is by far the the deadliest year since the start of the phenomenon of makeshift boats crossing the Channel in 2018. The Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “aiding the entry and stay of illegal immigrants in an organized gang, with the aggravating circumstance of endangering the lives of others,” Patrick Leleu, deputy prosecutor, told AFP. No arrests had been made by mid-morning on Sunday, he said during the prefect’s press briefing. “It’s horrible. It’s another loss of life,” reacted David Lammy, head of British diplomacy, to the BBC. “These people died because of France and England refusing to open passageways,” deplored on X (ex-Twitter) the migrant aid association Utopia 56. “The French and British states must rethink their migration policy immediately,” demanded on the same social network the Auberge des migrants, another association helping exiles, describing the Channel as a “deadly border.” – Perilous crossings – Thanks to a favorable weather window, numerous attempts to cross have taken place in recent days. In 24 hours between Friday and Saturday, “200 shipwrecked people were rescued,” the maritime prefecture of the Channel reported on Saturday evening. English: English: Channel and North Sea (Prémar). Over the course of the day, “18 attempts at boat departures were monitored” by the Regional Operational Centre for Surveillance and Rescue at Cap Gris-Nez, she said. In Ambleteuse, after the shipwreck during the night, a second departure took place around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Christine Leclair, a volunteer in a local association, told AFP. Departures “are happening all the time, winter, day, night, summer”, (…) as soon as the sea is calm”, she noted. These attempted crossings are carried out in particularly perilous conditions, on makeshift boats. According to figures from the British authorities, the boats that have arrived on British shores since January 1 have an average of 52 passengers, compared to only 13 in 2020. After the shipwreck on September 3, the resigning Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, called for the signing of a “migration treaty between Great Britain and the European Union” to try to put an end to illegal departures. Since the beginning of the year, more than 22,000 migrants have arrived in England after crossing the Channel by boat, according to the British authorities. The phenomenon has developed in response to the increasing lockdown of the Channel Tunnel and the port of Calais to stop the intrusions of Elected in July, the British government of Keir Starmer has promised to tackle illegal immigration by increasing the number of migrant deportations and cracking down on people smugglers.cor-cnp-kau/cnp/er
