Four people were indicted on Saturday, notably for “involuntary homicide”, and imprisoned, we learned from the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office. These people, two Iraqis and two Sudanese, were also indicted for “aiding the entry and illegal stay of an organized gang”, “unintentional injuries” and “endangering the lives of others”.
In total, a dozen people were arrested after a shipwreck on Wednesday which claimed the lives of two migrants, a man and a woman, while they were trying to cross the Channel to reach England. Aged around thirty years ago, these two refugees were on board a boat, crammed with around sixty people, which capsized shortly after leaving around 1:30 p.m. from a beach between Neufchâtel-Hardelot and Equihen-Plage (Pas-de -Calais), according to the prosecution. The other 58 castaways were brought ashore, some in a state of hypothermia.
The boat capsized a kilometer from the beach
According to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Prémar), these are the seventh and eighth deaths at sea since the start of the year “in connection with the migratory phenomenon”. The others date back to August 12, when six Afghans aged 21 to 34 lost their lives in a shipwreck, the deadliest in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais since that of November 24, 2021. At least 27 migrants then perished.
According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office, several boats left this beach on Wednesday morning, despite the presence of the gendarmes, who failed to prevent all departures. According to Prémar, the boat found itself in difficulty “less than a kilometer from the beach”. Six boats were mobilized, as well as a helicopter, to locate the two missing who could not then be revived.