At least four people drowned on Wednesday between France and the United Kingdom.
by Julia Pascual and Cécile Ducourieux (London, correspondent)
A little more than a year after the sinking that cost at least 27 people in the Channel, a new Small Boat capsized on the night of Tuesday, December 13, with almost fifty people on board trying to reach the English coasts. Wednesday evening, the British authorities deplored four dead and 43 people had been drafted in the ice water of the Channel in the early morning.
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, expressed his “pain”, deploring “the tragic losses of human life”. “These are days like this one that we are reducing,” added his Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, explaining that the tragedy made the fight against smugglers even more urgent. “Crossing the Channel on board boats that are not in a state of navigating is extremely dangerous. This is why we work so hard to destroy the economic model of smugglers, organized criminals dealing with human beings as goods” , added this elected official to the right of the Conservative Party.
Wednesday, few elements were known on the circumstances of the sinking. On the French side, the maritime prefecture of the Manche and the North Sea indicated that it has been engaged in a rescue operation off the British coast, coordinated by the coast guards of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) of Douvres. Joined by MO12345lemonde, she did not follow up. The Utopia 56 association, present on the coast in support of migrants, said it was contacted by phone by five boats in distress in the night.
“Please help us”
One of them could be the one that was sinking. “The position of the boat and the time of call corresponds to rescue operations,” says Nikolai Posner, a spokesperson for Utopia 56. At 2 h 53, French time, the association received by the WhatsApp application A vocal message in which we hear a man speaking in English: “We are in a boat and we have a problem. (…) Please help us. There are children and families. ‘Water enters the bottom. We have nothing to get in safety. Please help us, we are in the water. “
At 2 h 54, a location has been sent to Utopia 56 from the same number which would situate the “French waters” boat, very close to the demarcation line with British waters. The telephone number immediately was unreachable. The association would have in the wake warned French rescue by telephone at 2:57 am, then an email, of which MO12345LEMONDE had a copy, was sent to French and British rescue at 3 h including the elements of geolocation. At 3:25 a.m., the English emergency services were also notified by phone.
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