Migrants on the Channel were left to fend for themselves and drowned: ‘We’re in the water, it’s over’ | Abroad

Around 02:00, the first call arrived at the French rescue brigade. A migrant said he was sailing on a boat in the English Channel with around 30 other people and the boat broke down. They were in danger. Three minutes later, the call rang again. Now it seemed more hopeless. “Help us !” he said on the phone. Screams and cries could be heard in the background.

The boat was located just after 02:00. “We will send help as soon as possible,” said a French rescuer. But help did not come. At 3:30 a.m., another migrant called. The dinghy was leaking. “I’m in the water,” he said. The French emergency service replied: “Yes, but you are in British waters.”

In more than an hour and a half, the migrants from the sinking boat called the French humanitarian workers a total of 15 times during the night of November 23 to 24. But no lifeboat was sent. The boat sank and 27 people drowned, including six women and a little girl. Only two migrants survived.

This is evidenced by a meticulous reconstruction published by the French daily The world did. The newspaper has seen the criminal case and read all the reports of the communication that night between migrants and aid workers. “Rescue services did not send any help and did not properly assess the dangers,” the newspaper said. “On the contrary: they shifted the aid to the British.”

French rescuers called their British colleagues overnight. “I have a boat that is close to your waters, 0.6 nautical miles away,” was the message around 2 a.m. At 02:30, the French called back the British: “They are now in your zone. The responsibility has passed. “If they call back now, they should be sent to 999 (the British emergency number, editor’s note)”, said the French humanitarian workers around 2:30 a.m.

About an hour and a half later, the phone rang again. “We are in the water. It’s finish. Done,” said one migrant. Screams could again be heard in the background. “Please help us. Help us, we’re dying. We’re in the water and it’s cold.” On the French side, the answer was: “Where are you from in France?”

French rescuers continued to tell the migrants to call 999 as they were now in British waters. One of the two survivors, an Iraqi, told police they also called British emergency services. “They said the waves would have pushed us back into French waters by the time they could get there. So they didn’t come.”

Several French rescuers were questioned by the police, he said. The world, which cites reports. “Migrants are calling and shouting from the water all the time, even when things are going well,” said one. “We have two boats and a helicopter, while sometimes 30 to 50 boats are sailing the Channel at the same time,” says another. “We can’t handle it. We knew it would happen one day.”

The world describes how a fisherman finally sounded the alarm on the afternoon of November 24. “Uh… we just passed by, uh…, migrants. Well actually: past mortal remains,’ he reported from his ship to the rescue squad ashore. “Are they in a boat, are they dead? added the aid worker. “No, they’re in the water. They are dead.”

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