• Last Wednesday, 27 migrants died in the North Sea trying to reach Britain.

  • An investigation was opened to determine the circumstances of the tragedy and identify the victims.

  • The Paris prosecutor's office is calling for witnesses to help investigators in their investigations.

A week ago an unprecedented drama was played out in the North Sea. While trying to cross the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, 27 migrants were killed in the sinking of their boat. Five suspected smugglers were arrested in the wake without however being able to link them directly to this tragedy. An investigation to determine the circumstances of the sinking was opened by the Paris prosecutor's office, which is calling for witnesses to identify the victims.

During the night of November 23-24, seventeen men, seven women, two teenagers and a child died trying to reach Britain.

Only two men, an Iraqi and a Somali, were able to escape the cold waters of the North Sea alive.

Two days later, the National Jurisdiction for the Fight Against Organized Crime (JUNALCO) seized upon the investigation opened by the specialized inter-regional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Lille of the counts of “manslaughter, unintentional injury, endangerment. of the life of others, assistance with the entry, movement or illegal stay of a foreigner in France in an organized gang, trafficking in human beings in an organized gang and participation in a criminal association, ”specifies the prosecution of Paris.

Forensic work and call for witnesses

The investigations will have two main purposes. The first is to determine the circumstances of the shipwreck and identify the smugglers at the origin of this crossing. The second is to identify the 27 victims. This task is entrusted to the Gendarmerie Unit for the Identification of Disaster Victims (UGIVC) of the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie.

The investigators will deploy all means to carry out this difficult work: "collection of ante-mortem information, obtained from relatives of the victims and associations linked to the castaways, and post-mortem resulting from the examination of the bodies and the highlighting of identifying elements (in particular fingerprints, dental records, DNA samples) ”, specifies the Paris prosecutor in a press release.

A call for witnesses has also been launched; anyone with information can contact the IRCGN at am-ugivc@gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr.

To date, the authorities have not officially communicated on any identified victims.

However, according to British media, relatives of a 24-year-old Kurdish woman have confirmed her death during the sinking.

On Tuesday, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, confirmed that France would take care of the burial of the victims in the municipalities ready to welcome them once the identification operations are completed.

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  • Investigation

  • Shipwreck

  • Migrants

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