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31 migrants die in tragedy on boat between France, UK


31 migrants die in tragedy on boat between France, UK

Boat tragedy: Officials said three helicopters and three boats had previously searched the area.

Calais, France:

At least 31 migrants died on Wednesday crossing from France to Britain when their boat sank off the port of Calais, the deadliest disaster since the Canal began, French authorities said. become a major part of the migration route.

President Emmanuel Macron, declaring France will not allow the Canal to become a “cemetery”, vowed to find out who was responsible for the tragedy as prosecutors opened a manslaughter investigation.

“It is Europe’s deepest values ​​- humanism, respect for the dignity of every person – that are in a state of mourning,” Macron said.

The French leader also called for an emergency meeting of “European ministers facing the migration challenge”, in which Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin urged a “tough international response”.

Darmanin announced that four people suspected of being “directly involved” in the accident have been arrested.

His office said Prime Minister Jean Castex would convene some of his ministers for a crisis meeting early Thursday.

French officials said earlier that three helicopters and three boats had searched the area, finding dead bodies and unconscious people in the water, after a fisherman rang the alarm.

The victims were among about 50 people on the ship that sailed from Dunkirk east of Calais, police said.

On the other side of the Channel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “shocked, appalled and deeply saddened by the loss of life at sea”, after a crisis meeting with senior officials.

The disaster, the heaviest since at least 2018 when migrants began using mass boats to cross the Channel, comes as tensions grow between London and Paris over the number of people crossing the century. green.

Britain has urged tougher action from France to prevent migrants from making the trip.

Winter warning

Pierre Roques, coordinator of the NGO Auberge des Migrants in Calais, said the Channel was in danger of becoming as deadly for migrants as the Mediterranean, which has seen the number of migrants cross for years.

“People are dying in the Channel, which is becoming a cemetery. And since England is right across the street, people will keep crossing.”

According to French authorities, 31,500 people have tried to make their way to Britain since the start of the year and 7,800 have been rescued at sea, a figure that has doubled since August.

In the UK, Johnson’s government is under intense pressure, including from its own supporters, to reduce the number of passes.

Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for the British port of Dover, called the sinking “an absolute tragedy” and expressed the need to prevent crosses at the source.

“As winter approaches, the seas will become more aggressive, the water colder, the risk of more people losing their lives,” she said.

‘A deal’

France’s top maritime official for the north coast Philippe Dutrieux told AFP in an interview last week that the numbers attempting to cross had doubled in the past three months.

He blamed the “joke” of traffickers “who throw migrants into the water because this is a money-making business”.

“We have been warning for years about the dangers of this situation,” said Charlotte Kwantes, head of Utopia56, an association that works with migrants in Calais.

She puts the number of “more than 300” migrants who have died since 1999 in the area.

“As long as safe passages are not made between Britain and France, or as long as these people are not formalized in France … people will die at the border,” she told AFP.

In the UK, the Refugee Council’s chief executive, Enver Solomon, said the deaths were “heartbreaking” and there was a need for safe roads for those “in dire need of protection”.

According to British authorities, more than 25,000 people have now arrived illegally this year, tripling the number recorded in 2020.

The issue has increased post-Brexit tensions between Britain and France, with the fishing rights dispute still unresolved.

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