The investigation is continuing. In the aftermath of the sinking of a migrant boat which killed at least six people in the Channel, the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office withdrew in favor of that of Paris, the two courts said on Sunday.
The National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) in Paris has taken up the investigation opened for homicides and involuntary injuries, assistance with illegal residence and association of criminals, specified the Paris prosecutor’s office.
65 to 66 people were on board
Junalco seized the border police, the research section of the maritime gendarmerie with the related specialized technical services, as well as the Office for the fight against the illicit trafficking of migrants (OLTIM).
The boat had been spotted sinking early Saturday morning by a French patrol boat, who had launched the rescue.
The boat was carrying “probably 65 to 66 people”, according to the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Premar), all men, almost the majority of Afghan nationality, with some Sudanese, and “a few minors”, according to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office.
59 people rescued, one or two missing
The death toll has not yet been consolidated, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Sunday, while Premar indicated that the search had been stopped on Saturday “at nightfall”.
On Sunday, only “undirected searches, on opportunity” were to take place, the boats crossing the area concerned being called to vigilance.
“We don’t know if we’re really looking for someone,” said Premar, which reported on Saturday of one or two potential missing persons.
A total of 59 people were rescued and brought ashore on Saturday, according to Premar.
In 2022, a record year, 45,000 people made the crossing, despite the dangers incurred in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, one of the busiest in the world, and the death in November 2021 of at least 27 migrants in the sinking deadliest recorded in the area.
756 crossings on Thursday, a record
On Saturday alone, 509 migrants who made the crossing to the English coast on 10 boats were detected, according to figures from the British Ministry of the Interior. They were 756 on Thursday, a daily record since the start of the year.
On Sunday evening, around 200 people, including migrants, gathered in Calais and then marched to the port to pay tribute to the victims of the sinking. According to the associations, 376 people have died on the Franco-British border since 1999.
“These people die in general indifference”, pointed out in a press release the inter-associative group “death”, which deals in particular with preparing the burial or the repatriation of the bodies of deceased exiles.
Denouncing “migration policies and the increased militarization” of the border, the authors also ask “if the people who were separated during the landings in France and England will be able to benefit from family reunification”.
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