2023-08-12 18:52:00
The six exiles, aged around 30, were of Afghan origin. Nearly sixty survivors, including “a few minors”, were rescued.
By NB with AFP The Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, denounced “criminal” smugglers. © SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP Published on 08/12/2023 at 6:52 p.m.
New drama in the English Channel. Six Afghan exiles died on Saturday in the sinking of a boat carrying around sixty migrants trying to reach England, and one to two missing passengers remained wanted in the afternoon, less than two years after the deadliest shipwreck in the area. The six people who died are Afghan men in their thirties, Boulogne-sur-Mer deputy prosecutor Philippe Sabatier told Agence France-Presse. The passengers were “almost all Afghans, with a few Sudanese”, and included “a few minors”, he said.
In total, 58 to 59 survivors were rescued, 36 on the French side and 22 to 23 by the British coastguard, said the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Premar) in a new report at 16 hours. “A maximum of two people could still be missing and are therefore currently still wanted at sea”, with, on the French side, two ships, a helicopter and a plane mobilized. At first, the prosecution had reported five to ten missing. READ ALSO A sick migrant authorized to stay in France because of pollution in his country
Seven slightly injured landed in Calais were taken to hospital, the others being questioned by the police. One of the victims had been evacuated in the morning by helicopter to Calais hospital, the other five taken care of by the canoe Our Lady of Risban, of the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM).
“Criminal” smugglers
The Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, castigated, on Saturday, “criminal” smugglers, after the sinking. On the port of Calais, the epicenter of relief operations, Hervé Berville pointed to “the responsibility of criminal traffickers who send young people, women and adults to their deaths”, committing to the continuation and intensification of the “relentless fight of the authorities in the face of these networks. READ ALSOUnited Kingdom: Rishi Sunak faces the challenge of illegal immigration
“My thoughts go out to the victims”, reacted the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, on X (ex-Twitter), welcoming “the commitment of the rescue teams mobilized around the National Navy”.
This morning, a migrant boat capsized off Calais. My thoughts are with the victims.
I salute the commitment of the rescue teams mobilized around the @MarineNationale which saved around fifty shipwrecked people.@HerveBerville goes there.
— Élisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) August 12, 2023
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