DRAMA – 31 migrants perished on Wednesday off Calais while trying to reach England. An emergency meeting will be organized Thursday morning in Matignon.
LCI editorial staff –
TWO SURVIVORS IN CRITICAL STATE
Special envoy to Calais, our journalist Vincent Lamhaut indicates that the research is now over. “It is too difficult to continue after dark,” he explains, indicating that only two people survived the sinking. “Their condition is really critical. They are in severe hypothermia.”
While it is possible that other castaways are still missing, rescuers are pessimistic about their chances of survival given the freezing water temperature.
VIDEO – Shipwreck: at least 31 migrants drowned off the coast of Calais
NEVER AGAIN
“On the French side, I think that we will ensure that the jungle does not reconstitute itself, which facilitates the work of smugglers”, estimates this Wednesday evening on LCI Didier Leschi, director of the French Immigration Office , while an interministerial meeting is to be held Thursday morning.
TESTIMONY OF A RESCUER
“It’s difficult to talk about it like that, but I expected it”, explained to the press this Wednesday evening Charles Devos, the boss of the Calais rescue boat, who collected six of the 31 at sea on Wednesday. migrants victims of the deadliest migratory shipwreck in the English Channel.
“We passed next to an inflatable boat that was downright deflated, the little air that remained helped it to float. We recovered six bodies adrift. The rest was the collection,” said the rescuer, on the port of Calais.
“We get used to it but it’s still shocking, especially at the level of children,” adds this boss of the star Notre-Dame-du-Risban, of the National Society for Rescue at Sea (SNSM) of Calais. “Last week, there was a lady with her three-month-old baby screaming in her arms … it’s all hard,” recalls Charles Devos, now regularly on the bridge to save migrants.
PRESS RELEASE FROM EMMANUEL MACRON
The drama, as terrible as it was unprecedented, caused a shock wave within the government.
Shipwreck of migrants: “France will not let the Channel become a cemetery”, affirms Emmanuel Macron
STARTING POINT
Since the start of the year, 31,500 crossing attempts have been recorded there.
VIDEO – Shipwreck of migrants: why so many attempts to cross to England from Calais?
BORDERS
“I hear the words of Gerald Darmanin who accuses the smugglers. Certainly they have a role. But what other choice do these people have to leave their country than to call on smugglers?” Asks this Wednesday evening on LCI the former Mayor of Grande-Synthe Damien Carême. “Wherever we put borders, barbed wire, where there is no legal way of migration, we use networks of smugglers,” said MEP EELV, calling for the borders to be opened to legal migration.
“Europe needs to put all its weight on Britain to organize migration routes and sanctions that could come behind if the UK refuses.”
TWO SURVIVORS IN CRITICAL STATE
Special envoy to Calais, our journalist Vincent Lamhaut indicates that the research is now over. “It is too difficult to continue after dark,” he explains, indicating that only two people survived the sinking. “Their condition is really critical. They are in severe hypothermia.”
While it is possible that other castaways are still missing, rescuers are pessimistic about their chances of survival given the freezing water temperature.
RESPONSIBILITY
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin went there in the evening, calling for a “very harsh international response”, calling the smugglers “primarily responsible for this despicable situation”.
Shipwreck of migrants in the Channel: Gérald Darmanin announces the arrest of “four smugglers”
REACTION FROM EMMANUEL MACRON
“France will not let the Channel become a cemetery,” Emmanuel Macron said Thursday after the death of at least 31 migrants in the Channel, asking for “the immediate strengthening of the resources of the Frontex agency at the external borders of the EU, according to the Élysée.
The Head of State also calls for “an emergency meeting of European ministers concerned by the migration challenge” and ensures that “everything will be done to find and condemn those responsible” for this tragedy.
A meeting must already take place on this subject Thursday at 8:30 am in Matignon, bringing together in particular the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin, the Minister of the Armies Florence Parly. Jean Castex will participate in this videoconference meeting, being in isolation following his contamination with Covid-19.
GOVERNMENT MEETING TOMORROW
A meeting will take place Thursday morning around Jean Castex and eight ministers, announces Matignon.
BORIS JOHNSON “DEEPLY DECEASED”
Boris Johnson said Wednesday he was “shocked, revolted and deeply saddened” by the death of the migrants, claiming to want to “do more” with France to discourage illegal crossings.
“We had difficulty persuading some of our partners, in particular the French, to act up to the situation, but I understand the difficulties that all countries are facing and what we want now is to do more together, ”he told Sky News after a crisis meeting.
UK CRISIS MEETING
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called an interministerial crisis meeting, Downing Street has announced. “The Prime Minister will lead a COBR meeting on the situation in the Channel this afternoon,” said his spokesperson.
“A TRAGEDY” ACCORDING TO JEAN CASTEX
At least 27 migrants died Wednesday in the sinking of their boat in the Channel, off Calais, where the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin is expected in the evening.
This tragedy, described as a “tragedy” by Prime Minister Jean Castex, is the deadliest since the soaring in 2018 of migratory crossings of the Channel, in the face of the growing lockdown of the port of Calais and Eurotunnel used until then by the migrants trying to reach England.
Before this sinking, the death toll since the start of the year stood at three dead and four missing. In 2020, six people were killed and three others were missing. Four deaths were recorded in 2019.
27 migrants died on Wednesday in the sinking of their boat in the English Channel, off Calais, while trying to reach Great Britain, French police said. This is the deadliest toll since the soaring migratory crossings of the Channel in 2018, faced with the growing lockdown of the port of Calais and Eurotunnel used until then by migrants trying to reach England.
Upon the announcement of this news, Jean Castex deplored a “tragedy”. “My thoughts are with the many missing and injured, victims of criminal smugglers who exploit their distress and misery”, he wrote on Twitter, specifying to follow the situation “in real time”. On this same social network, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin expressed his “strong emotion in front of the tragedy of the many deaths due to the capsizing of a migrant boat in the English Channel”. “We can never say enough about the criminal nature of the smugglers who organize these crossings”, he says. He is expected on site in the evening.
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Migrant crisis: deadly shipwreck off Calais
The macabre discovery made by a fisherman
“Around 2 p.m., a fisherman reported the discovery of about fifteen bodies floating off Calais. A French Navy vessel recovered several bodies, including five dead people and five unconscious, according to a provisional report”, had previously announced this same source. In the meantime, this toll has risen to 27 dead.
According to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea, three helicopters and three boats are participating in the research.
Attempts to migrate across the Channel on board small boats have doubled in the past three months, the maritime prefect of the Channel and the North Sea, Philippe Dutrieux, warned last Friday in an interview with AFP. In 2020, six people were killed there and three were missing.
The Dunkirk prosecutor’s office announced to AFP the opening of an investigation into “assistance with entry to irregular stay in an organized group” and “aggravated manslaughter”.
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- Channel: 272 migrants rescued as they tried to reach England
A tragedy that occurs amidst heightened diplomatic tensions
This new tragedy risks further heightening the tensions between France and England, which have lasted since 2018. The previous rise in fever dates back to September, when British media had announced a threat not to pay France. 62.7 million euros pledged in 2021 to finance border control. The United Kingdom has finally announced the next payment of this sum after a French reaction.
According to maritime prefect Philippe Dutrieux, around 15,400 migrants attempted the dangerous crossing between January 1 and August 31, of which 3,500 were “recovered in difficulty” in the strait and brought back to the French coast. In 2020, crossings and attempted crossings concerned some 9,500 people, compared to 2,300 in 2019 and 600 in 2018.
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