On 24 November 2021, an
inflatable dinghy, carrying 30 migrants across the English Channel from France to the UK,
capsized whilst still in French territorial waters near Calais and Dunkirk.
[5][6][7]Twenty-seven people were found dead, while two others survived and were rescued, and another is still missing.
[8][9] Sixteen of the victims were identified as
Kurdish people from
Iraqi Kurdistan, including ten men, four women and two children; four more were Afghan men, three
Ethiopians, one Kurdish man from
Iran, a
Somali woman, one
Vietnamese man, and an
Egyptian man.
[10][11]Four suspected
smugglers were arrested shortly after.
[5][12]
A Dover-based fisherman described to The Telegraph how he thought French vessels did not respond to Mayday calls from the French coastguard to attend the incident in French waters about 7 miles (11 km) off Calais. He said that the alarm was raised at about 1 pm and that there were about 15-20 large French fishing vessels off Calais at the time which did not respond. On the other hand, boats from HM Coastguard at Dover and the British Border Force's vessel BF Hurricane arrived on scene around 45 minutes later.[13] A report in Le Monde suggested that the alarm was raised by a French fishing boat and that the stricken dinghy, although in French waters, was not far from being in English waters.[14]
The French authority responsible for overseeing the French side of the English Channel where the incident occurred said that a British helicopter from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Dover had joined a French naval helicopter and patrol vessel, a police boat and a lifeboat to search for survivors and to recover bodies.
[13]
On 28 November, one of the two survivors was reported by
Rudaw to have said that after their boat began to deflate they called the French authorities for help, but were told they were in British waters, so they called British authorities, but no one came to help.
[15][16] This was confirmed by the numerous records of the telephone calls and the testimonies of the victims' relatives
[14] and in November 2022, by elements from the French official enquiry.
[17][18]
The UK
Maritime and Coastguard Agency said that on 24 November they had received "more than 90 alerts, including 999 emergency calls, from the English Channel" and had responded to all of the calls.
[19]
www.theguardian.com
www.gov.uk
en.wikipedia.org
