On the night of November 23 to 24, 27 migrants - 31 according to the Utopia 56 association - died on the borders of French and British territorial waters after their boat sank.
According to the two survivors, several calls for help were made during the night.
However, the rescuers were not dispatched until the next day at around 2 p.m.
Judicial information was opened on Friday at the Paris prosecutor's office.
What happened on that terrible night from November 23 to 24 off the coast of Dunkirk (North)? Could the shipwreck which claimed the lives of 27 migrants, including two minors, have been avoided? This is the whole subject of a complaint lodged on Friday by the association of aid to migrants Utopia 56 for "involuntary manslaughter" and "failure to provide assistance" against the maritime prefect of the Channel, rescuers of the Cross, the Regional Surveillance and Rescue Center and the British Coast Guard. "Our goal is to shed light on what really happened that night," confides Me Emmanuel Daoud, the collective's lawyer. Everything suggests that the first distress calls took place between 2 and 3 a.m., why was help sent at 2 p.m.? "
The complaint, which
20 Minutes
was able to consult, is based in particular on the testimonies of the only two survivors. The latter told the Kurdish media Rudaw that they had called for help several times throughout the night, in vain. According to their accounts, three hours after leaving on a motorboat from around Dunkirk to reach England, the boat's right inflator exploded and water began to seep into the boat.
“We called the French police saying 'help us, our pump is no longer working' and they said 'you are in British waters', one of them said in particular.
Two people called, one the French services, the other the British emergency services.
»Testimonies corroborated by relatives of the victims.
The complaint thus evokes a WhatsApp message left by a man who died in the shipwreck who explained to his family that he was in the territorial waters of two countries.
"We do not know who will come," he confided to them.
" They make fun of us "
Contacted, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea, without formally denying these testimonies, ensures "that no worrying situation is left in abeyance, whatever the sector of origin of the call, especially more than it is about human lives ”. The day after the tragedy, his spokesperson explained to
20 Minutes
that the alert was not given until around 2 p.m. by a fisherman who saw a dozen bodies floating in a sea at 11 degrees. A large device, comprising in particular two helicopters and three boats, was then immediately deployed. Much too late, then. "The rescuers recovered 27 bodies but the testimonies of the two survivors and of families suggest that there would in reality be 31 dead", specifies an official of the association Utopia 56.
Above all, the collective claims to have been confronted, three days previously, with a similar situation. On November 20, around 9:30 a.m., a volunteer received a call on the emergency number from a migrant who was, with 22 people, on a boat whose engine failed on the borders of French and British territorial waters. . According to him, despite several calls, the rescue services of the two countries have not stopped passing the buck.
“Sir, we have called all the numbers, they are not answering.
Nobody wants to answer us, they make fun of us, ”assures the victim in a worried voice to the volunteer in a message that
20 Minutes
was able to listen to.
Seven more will follow.
"I call 999 [British emergency number], they tell me to call that of the French and if I call that of the French, they tell me to call the United Kingdom," he insists.
Finally, the French rescue services will arrive on site at the end of the morning and all the castaways will be recovered unharmed.
A procedure on each side of the Channel
"The purpose of this complaint is not to caricature the action of the emergency services but to understand what really happened, in particular so that such tragedies do not happen again", insists Me Emmanuel Daoud. And the latter recalled that on the day of the tragedy, 106 people were saved at sea by the French services and 103 by their British counterparts. In total, according to the maritime prefecture, nearly 8,200 migrants have been rescued, on the French side, since the start of 2021.
Friday, judicial information, entrusted to three investigating judges, was opened by the Paris prosecutor's office.
According to a judicial source, the investigations focus on three components: the identification of the victims, the circumstances of the shipwreck and the networks of smugglers.
At the same time, proceedings were launched in Great Britain by families of victims, originating from Iraqi Kurdistan.
“It is more of an administrative procedure, specifies the lawyer of the association.
We each use the means of our countries which seem to us the most appropriate to shed light on this tragedy.
"
Society
Shipwreck in the English Channel: The last of the 27 drowned migrants has been identified
Did you see ?
Calais: A Vigipirate 4x4 rodeo in front of a migrant camp and ends up bogged down
Shipwreck
Investigation
Migrants
Society
Lille
0 comment
0 share
Share on Messenger
Share on Facebook
Share on twitter
Share on Flipboard
Share on Pinterest
Share on Linkedin
Send by Mail
To safeguard
A fault ?
To print