A 16-year-old Sudanese migrant died after trying to get on a heavy truck on Monday near Calais in the hope of smuggling to England. Aware of the arrival of help, the young exile was transported to Calais hospital where he died.
According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor, the young man headed for the truck on the passenger side. He managed to climb between the cabin and the trailer. And when the driver started again, the migrant fell.
The truck driver heard
A group of around forty migrants accompanied the victim. They “threw a number of stones at the vehicle”, according to the prosecutor.
The driver of the heavy truck, from Eastern Europe, slightly injured by the projectiles, according to the police source, was heard and an investigation opened at the Calais police station for manslaughter.
Hundreds of migrants are still present on the coast of northern France, including many families, hoping to cross to England. Faced with the increasingly tight lockdown of access to ferries and the Eurotunnel, attempts to cross by sea have grown significantly from the end of 2018, but some migrants, especially the most penniless, continue to attempt the passage by climbing into trucks.
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An investigation opened after the suspicious death of a truck driver
The Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office is also seized of a different investigation involving a Portuguese heavy truck driver, found dead in the night from Monday to Sunday on a motorway rest area in Pas-de-Calais.
According to the prosecutor’s account, “a group of migrants” approached the Portuguese driver at the rest area and beatings could then have been given.
“At the end of this, he goes back to the passenger compartment where there is a second driver,” explains the magistrate. “A few minutes later, he becomes faint and he will be in cardio-respiratory arrest”.
The source close to the case reports “4 or 5 migrants” among the potential aggressors. According to another source close to the case, the driver had “reported by telephone the presence of migrants in his trailer”.
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