B.According to French media reports, more than 20 people died in the sinking of a boat carrying migrants en route to Great Britain. The news agency AFP and the broadcaster BFMTV reported on Wednesday, each with reference to the police. As the Maritime Prefecture announced during the ongoing rescue operation, a fishing boat made the emergency call that several migrants were in distress in the English Channel. Helpers from France used boats and helicopters to attempt a rescue. Some of the rescued are in mortal danger.
France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex spoke of a tragedy and his thoughts were with the numerous victims. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said there was great concern at the drama when the boat capsized. He will travel to the place of misfortune. “It cannot be stressed enough how criminal the smugglers who organize these crossings are,” said Darmanin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in whose country the refugees wanted, called an emergency meeting.
As the newspaper “La Voix du Nord” reported, the number of deaths is now 27. Around 50 migrants were on the boat when it capsized around 15 kilometers from Calais.
The public prosecutor’s office in Dunkerque began investigations into “particularly serious manslaughter”. “The English Channel is gradually becoming a cemetery, like the Mediterranean,” said Pierre Roques of the aid organization L’Auberge des Migrants. Several politicians said that more needs to be done to combat the smugglers. “We need more resources to destroy the network of people smugglers who take advantage of the misery”, wrote the conservative presidential candidate Xavier Bertrand on Twitter.
A few days ago it became known that the police had taken 15 suspected human smugglers from Iraq, Romania, Pakistan and Vietnam into custody. They are said to have brought about 250 migrants to the UK in boats every month. For the crossing they would have received 6000 euros per person and made a total of three million euros in profit.
So far this year, more than 24,700 people have illegally crossed the English Channel. That is almost three times as many as in all of 2020. The British government accuses France of not doing enough against illegal crossings, which Paris rejects. It was only in July that the two sides agreed on a new cooperation agreement in order to get a grip on the growing number of migrants who come to England in small boats across the English Channel. London pledged € 62.7 million to support the French authorities.
There are many migrants in the Calais area. Aid organizations criticize that security forces regularly evacuate their camps and destroy tents and sleeping bags in the process. The migrants are offered emergency accommodation in other parts of the country. However, many of them keep trying to get into the UK. Many of them want to go to Great Britain because they speak the language and already have friends or relatives there. The increase in the numbers since August is likely to have something to do with the fact that the crossing will soon be even more dangerous with the falling temperatures.
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