British Prime Minister Boris Johnson summoned an interministerial session of crisis on Wednesday after the death of at least 27 migrants after his ship sank as they tried to cross the channel of La Mancha.
According to a convenient source of the case, the boat sailed with some 50 migrants on board from the French city of Dunkerque (North).
Previously, the French interior ministry had communicated the death of at least 5 people.
“Around 2:00 p.m., a fisherman reported about fifteen bodies floating in front of Calais. A French Navy ship recovered several bodies, including five dead and five unconscious, according to an interim report,” reported from interior.
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The French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, described what happened as a “tragedy”.
“My thought is with the many missing and wounded, victims of criminal traffickers who exploit their anguish and misery,” the head of government said in a message published on Twitter, ensuring following “the situation in real time”.
“Strong emotion in front of the tragedy of the many deaths by the rollover of a migrant boat on the Canal de la Mancha, we can never say enough about the criminal nature of the traffickers who organize these crosses,” he tuned the interior holder,
Gerald Darmanin, who went to the place where shipwreck occurred.
The Dunkerque Prosecutor’s Office announced to the AFP the opening of an investigation by “assistance in the entrance to illegal residence in an organized group” and “aggravated homicide”.
According to the maritime prefecture of the Canal and the North Sea, three helicopters and three boats participate in the search tasks.
The balance of this tragedy only exceeds the total number of deceased on the channel of La Mancha since 2018, when it began to increase the number of migrants that try to reach the British coasts on board small boats with the greatest surveillance in ports and
In the tunnel that unites France and England.
Before this shipwreck, the balance of 2021 was three dead and four disappeared.
In 2020, six people lost their lives and three others disappeared.
In 2019, four dead were recorded.
Last Friday, the maritime prefecture had registered 31,500 attempts to depart to Great Britain and 7,800 rescued migrants, from the beginning of the year.
