A migrant boat intercepted in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais.

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Maritime Gendarmerie

  • Four migrants were killed when their boat sank on its way to Great Britain.

  • A drama of unparalleled magnitude in the English Channel as attempts to cross multiply.

  • An investigation was opened by the Dunkirk prosecutor's office to try to determine the responsibilities.

The Channel had never known such a tragedy before.

Tuesday morning, twenty migrants tried to reach Great Britain aboard a boat of the "fishing-promenade" type.

For a reason that remains to be defined, the boat overturned before sinking off Dunkirk, in the North.

Four people, including two children, were killed.

The Dunkirk prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to determine the responsibilities in this tragedy.

Tuesday, two children of 5 and 8 years as well as a woman and a man, had died while trying to reach the English coasts.

The boat used was a "fishing trip", "rigid and motor" boat, according to the first elements of the investigation.

Identify the victims, the smugglers and the pilot

Fourteen migrants, survivors of the shipwreck "have been or are being heard", in custody, said Wednesday, the prosecutor of Dunkirk, Sébastien Pive.

Another person "still requires treatment, and could not be heard," added the prosecutor.

"It is a question of establishing whether they are victims or smugglers [...] and to identify possible suspects, in particular the driver of this boat", continued the prosecutor.

Some police custody will be gradually lifted to keep only potential suspects and "consider Thursday one or more removals".

According to testimonies, the deceased victims "could belong to the same family", which would have "found themselves in the cabin" at the time of the sinking, but this "remains hypothetical" according to the prosecutor.

An entire family decimated

Some statements state "22 people on board in total, which would mean that three people are still missing, including a toddler", he added, estimating that "could be the third child. of the deceased family ”.

“We hypothesize that these people - who claim to be primarily Kurds of Iranian nationality, and for some Iraqi Kurds - left the Grande-Synthe camp, would have been taken by smugglers to a nearby beach […] then would have sailed for forty minutes before turning around ”because of the bad weather, he detailed.

According to the prosecutor, not all people on board were equipped with life jackets.

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  • Shipwreck

  • Investigation

  • Migrants

  • Justice