Three Eritrean nationals are in police custody following the attempt to cross the Channel which left one dead and two missing on Wednesday in the Strait of Pas-de-Calais, AFP learned Thursday from the Boulogne prosecutor's office. on sea.
These three people, born in 1996, 1999 and 2000, were taken into custody on Wednesday evening, Patrick Leleu, deputy prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, told AFP.
The three police custody can last up to four days, an investigation being opened for involuntary homicide as well as for aiding entry and illegal stay, with the aggravating circumstances of organized gang and exposure to an immediate risk of death .
The investigation is being carried out by the Office for Combating Smuggling of Migrants (Oltim) and the maritime gendarmerie.
The missing have not been found
Around noon on Wednesday, the passengers of the boat on which these three migrants had boarded asked to be rescued, reported the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Prémar) in a press release Wednesday evening.
Some of the fifty-six people rescued then informed the crew that these three people had “fallen overboard earlier in the day”, again according to Prémar.
The deceased person “has not yet been formally identified,” said the deputy prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, while neither of the two missing people has yet been found.
A network of smugglers dismantled on February 21
Wednesday's tragedy is the second causing deaths in 2024 off the French coast.
On the night of January 13 to 14, five migrants, including a 14-year-old Syrian teenager, died in Wimereux (Pas-de-Calais) while trying to reach a boat already at sea in water around 9 degrees , to reach England.
Also readMigrants: why illegal Channel crossings have increased in recent weeks
Twelve migrants lost their lives in 2023 while trying to cross the Channel, according to Prémar.
That same year, 29,437 migrants reached English shores illegally, compared to 45,774 in 2022, a record year, according to figures from the British Interior Ministry.
One of the “most important” smuggler networks organizing these Channel crossings by boat was dismantled on February 21 in a vast international operation.
Nineteen people were arrested in Germany in this raid which involved the French, Belgian and German authorities, coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.