Last night, 138 migrants were rescued as they attempted to cross the Channel illegally on board makeshift boats. As regards the twenty-seven people who died on November 24, 2021, while they were also trying to reach England, the investigation was finally entrusted to Parisian examining magistrates: judges of the jurisdiction national body responsible for the fight against organized crime. These will have to clarify the circumstances of this tragedy which are still unclear.
The investigators will have to answer several questions. First of all, how many people were on the inflatable boat that night. While twenty-seven bodies were recovered, two men – an Iraqi Kurd and a Sudanese – were rescued. But, according to one of them, when the smugglers counted the passengers on the beach, before leaving, there were thirty-three.
Who are the smugglers?
Another question: who are the smugglers? Just after the tragedy, Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, announced the arrest of five people. But they had – in reality – no connection with this shipwreck.
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Finally, justice will have to determine whether the migrants called for help when their makeshift boat began to deflate and sink. According to the two survivors interviewed, in particular by an Iraqi Kurdish channel, they made calls to the French and English authorities who refused to come and pick them up. On both sides of the Channel, we deny: ” The operational surveillance and rescue center, the Cross, only became aware of the situation during a call made by a fisherman in the middle of the day. », Specifies for its part the maritime prefecture of the Channel.
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