On Tuesday, Utopia 56 denounced the unprecedented "refoulement", towards the French coast, of a boat of migrants leaving for England from Pas-de-Calais.

The association points to an "illegal and dangerous" action, challenged by the maritime prefecture (Premar), which assured that it was a rescue.

In a press release, Utopia 56 indicated that this case, which occurred on May 6, related to a boat with 19 migrants on board, "including six young children", who were trying to reach England.

According to the association, which evokes other pushbacks in the Mediterranean, "this is the first time that such a case of forced pushback has been identified in the Channel".

The boat "did not present any technical problem"

According to the testimonies she collected, the boat “did not present any technical problem, when, around 6:20 a.m., two gendarmerie boats surrounded it and circled it four or five times, causing waves”.

A maneuver which had the effect of filling the boat with about twenty centimeters of water, causing panic among the migrants, according to Utopia 56.

In the press release issued after this operation, the Premar explains that the Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue hired a gendarmerie star after having identified "a boat in difficulty".

The press release adds that the 19 "shipwrecked" were recovered on board the gendarmes' boat, then deposited "on the beach of Sangatte".

For its part, Utopia 56 affirms that the migrants remained on board their canoe, which was towed to the beach.

The association also claims that no emergency call was made from the boat to ask for help.

“The prefecture lied and acted as if it were a rescue,” denounced the general delegate of Utopia, Yann Manzi.

“There are no refoulement instructions”

“There are no refoulement instructions, we are sticking to our rescue mission, our course of action has not changed one iota,” reacted the maritime prefecture to AFP.

His spokesperson, Véronique Magnin, however, admitted that the press release of May 6 contained an error, the migrants having in fact been towed.

According to her, the gendarmes intervened following "a report to the Cross by the port authorities reporting an overloaded boat" and carried out the rescue in agreement with the Cross, having judged that there was danger.

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  • Miscellaneous facts

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  • Normandy

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