After the tragedy, the investigation continues.
Twenty-six of the twenty-seven migrants who drowned in the English Channel on the night of November 24 while trying to reach the English coast were “formally identified”, including a child and a teenager, the Paris prosecutor announced on Tuesday. , in a press release.
After the meeting on Monday of a commission for the identification of victims, "twenty-six of the twenty-seven people who died on November 24, 2021 have been formally identified thanks to the information collected" by the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN ) and the examinations carried out at the Lille hospital center, specifies the prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
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Among the victims are sixteen Iraqi Kurds "including four women aged 22 to 46, a 16 year old teenager, a 7 year old child and ten men aged 19 to 37", she adds.
A "23 year old Kurd from Iran", "three Ethiopians, including two women aged 22 and 25 and a man aged 46, a Somali woman aged 33, four Afghan men aged 24 to 40 and an Egyptian man from 20 years ”, have also been identified.
"No pregnant woman has been identified among the victims," said prosecutor Beccuau.
The Paris prosecutor's office issued "twenty-seven burial permits, including one issued under X for the only person not identified to date," she adds.
Two survivors, five smugglers arrested
The migrants would have left aboard an inflatable boat "at the end of the night" from Loon-Plage, near Grande-Synthe (North), where many exiles are camping on the coast.
Only two men, an Iraqi Kurd and a Sudanese according to the Interior Ministry, were able to be rescued.
According to the Iraqi Kurd, 33 people were on board when the smugglers counted them.
The investigation by the National Organized Crime Jurisdiction (Junalco), for “assistance with irregular entry and stay in an organized group”, “homicide and involuntary injuries” and “criminal association”, must in particular determine the conditions of this shipwreck which remain unclear.
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According to the testimony of a survivor with the Iraqi Kurdish channel, the migrants would have phoned the French and British help several times when their boat began to sink, without being able to obtain help.
The Manche maritime prefecture had ruled out that the appeal of migrants in difficulty was not dealt with.
Five people suspected of being smugglers were arrested, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
This shipwreck, the deadliest since migrants tried to reach England by sea, caused a stir in Europe and rekindled tensions between France and the United Kingdom.