Five migrants died on the night of January 13 to 14, while trying to reach a boat in freezing water to cross the Channel. This is the first deadly drama of 2024 off the French coast.
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On the Wimereux dike, only a few clothes and shoes abandoned by the castaways bear witness to the drama that took place there during the night. “ People found themselves in difficulty at sea to reach » a boat already in the water, explained the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Prémar). Alerted by the police, on land, an intervention tug went to rescue the shipwrecked people. His crew then identified inanimate and unconscious people in water at 9 degrees.
Four deaths were initially counted by Prémar, but a fifth inanimate body was then found at the edge of the beach. A sixth person was transferred “ in absolute emergency » at the Boulogne-sur-Mer hospital (north), indicates the prefecture, also reporting one lightly injured and 32 survivors.
Most of the castaways, rescued by the police, were taken to a hangar in the town near Calais made available to migrants as part of the extreme cold plan. “ Entire families with children, some of them young “, are among the survivors, one of the people responsible for their reception reported to Agence France-Presse. “ Other surveillance and rescue operations are underway along the entire Pas-de-Calais coastline. », Specified Prémar. An investigation was opened, in particular for “aggravated involuntary homicides”, “helping the stay of foreigners in an irregular situation in an organized gang” and “criminal association”, indicated the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office.
Twelve deaths in 2023
It had been more than two weeks since the associations had observed so many attempts to leave. Until then, the sea was too bad, far too rough to allow the “long boats”, these overloaded inflatable boats, to cross the Channel to England. “ For the past 24 to 48 hours, the weather has been good at sea. Few winds, few waves… So people are attempting the crossing, despite the cold – it’s 3°C in Calais, the water is 9-10°C , it is extremely dangerous, reports to RFI Axel Gaudinat, coordinator of the Utopia 56 association in Calais. For us, the evictions which take place every 48 hours in Calais push people to leave ever more quickly from this place where their survival conditions are absolutely horrible. »
Since the start of the weekend, Utopia teams have encountered several hundred exiles on the coast during their marauding raids. The association’s objective is to prevent hypothermia in groups of migrants who wander, wet, after their departure fails.
Twelve migrants lost their lives in 2023 while trying to cross the Channel, according to Prémar. The last two deaths date back to December 15 with two deaths on the same day, in separate crossing attempts. On August 12, six Afghans died in shipwreckthe deadliest in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais since that of November 24, 2021, which cost the lives of at least 27 migrants.
Since the 1990s and after the closure in 2002 of a Red Cross center in Sangatte (north), hundreds of exiles have crowded into tents and makeshift shelters in Calais or Dunkirk to try to rally the England, hidden in trucks or by boat. In 2023, 29,437 migrants reached the English coast illegally, compared to 45,774 in 2022, a record year, according to figures from the British Home Office. About 20% are from Afghanistan. Next come the Iranians, Turks, Eritreans and Iraqis.
(And with AFP)