It is the worst tragedy to have occurred in three years.
A day after the death of 27 migrants in the wreck of their boat in the English Channel, France and the United Kingdom on Thursday expressed their willingness to cooperate against the mafias that traffic in migrants.
This is the worst tragedy since the migration of the Channel exploded in 2018, as a result of reinforced controls at the French port of Calais (north) and the underwater tunnel, which until then were mostly used by migrants to reach England .
This Thursday, France invited “the ministers in charge of Belgian, German, Dutch and British immigration, as well as the European Commission, to a meeting” on Sunday in Calais (north) to “strengthen police, judicial and humanitarian cooperation” and “better fight” against the mafias that traffic in migrants.
Shortly before, during a trip to Croatia, French President Emmanuel Macron called for “greater European cooperation in this area.”
For her part, the British Interior Minister, Priti Patel, also called on Thursday for “a coordinated international effort” to confront criminal groups that organize illegal crossings of the English Channel.
In a telephone conversation on Wednesday night, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Macron have already agreed to “intensify their efforts” to tackle drug gangs, according to a Downing Street spokesman.
A statement from the Elysee then stated that Macron expected the UK to “cooperate fully and refrain from instrumentalizing such a dramatic situation for political purposes.”
Following a crisis meeting on Wednesday, Johnson accused the French authorities of not having done “enough” to prevent the crossings, despite having received more than 60 million euros ($ 67 million) of British contribution to reinforce the surveillance of its coasts.
According to Tom Pursglove, the British Secretary of State for Immigration, Johnson reiterated a proposal, previously rejected by Paris on sovereignty grounds, to organize Franco-British patrols on the French shores to prevent the departure of the vessels.
“I hope the French will reconsider this proposal,” he told the BBC.
This issue of clandestine crossings, which regularly fuels tensions between London and Paris, is a sensitive one for Johnson’s conservative government, which made the fight against immigration its post-Brexit workhorse.
The facts of the tragedy
The accident occurred on board a “long boat”, a fragile inflatable boat, which has been increasingly used by traffickers since last summer. The ship had left Dunkerque (north), according to a source close to the case.
The victims include 17 men, seven women and three young people, according to the Lille (north) prosecutor’s office. A police source indicated that among the fatalities there were also a teenager and three children.
The two survivors, an Iraqi and a Somali, were in “severe hypothermia yesterday” Wednesday, but “a little better today,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Thursday.
The remains of the boat will be examined to clarify the causes of the shipwreck.
According to Darmanin, after the arrest of four people, a fifth suspected of human trafficking was also arrested on Wednesday night, who had “bought zodiacs in Germany.”
Crossing attempts on board small boats have doubled in the last three months, according to the Maritime Prefect of the Channel, Philippe Dutrieux, recently warned. As of November 20, 31,500 migrants had embarked on the journey since the beginning of the year, and 7,800 of them were rescued. The trend has not abated despite winter temperatures.
Before this shipwreck, the balance since January was three dead and four missing, after six dead and three missing in 2020. (I)
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