He was one of the 27 victims of the sinking of a makeshift boat in the English Channel in 2021. The family of an Ethiopian who died while trying to cross illegally filed a request on Friday before the Lille administrative court to seek compensation from the French state.
The man died in November 2021 during a shipwreck which cost the lives of at least 27 migrants, and led to the indictment of soldiers for failure to assist a person in danger.
He hoped to seek asylum in the UK.
Utopia 56 and the Human Rights League join the family (the wife and children), who currently resides in Ethiopia, in this procedure.
In a press release, they denounce the “deficiencies of the State”.
This is an unprecedented approach according to these two associations.
The worst migration tragedy in the Channel
By taking legal action alongside the victims, the two associations intend to remind people that it is possible to avoid these tragedies “by putting an end to the deadly policies of non-assistance at sea and by working, on the contrary, for migration and asylum based on fundamental rights,” declared the president of the LDH Patrick Baudouin, quoted in the press release.
Shipwreck in the Channel: with @Utopia_56 the #LDH joins the request for compensation for the damage of the victims' families.
Light must be shed on the failings of the State and the deadly border policies must stop.
➤ https://t.co/RmTImvmeYR pic.twitter.com/cUl7mA6599
— LDH France (@LDH_Fr) March 15, 2024
As part of the investigation into this shipwreck, the worst migratory tragedy ever recorded in the Channel, seven French soldiers and 11 suspected smugglers were investigated.
The French authorities are suspected of having been called for help around fifteen times and of not having come to the aid of the migrants.
Also read: Migrants dead in the Channel: chronicle of a feared shipwreck
According to Nikolaï Posner of Utopia 56 communications, the objective is, ultimately, for all the families of victims of this shipwreck to join the procedure for requesting compensation for the damage.
Possible “shortcomings” in sea rescue
The request before the administrative court completes a complaint filed by Utopia 56 for this shipwreck.
The criminal aspect “will target individual responsibilities when the administrative procedure will rather highlight systemic failures of the State in terms of rescue at sea”, underlines Nikolaï Posner.
“No European state has ever been recognized as responsible, or at least with some responsibility, for the deaths of people at the borders,” he underlines.
Since the start of the year, at least seven migrants, including a seven-year-old girl and a 14-year-old teenager, have died at sea and on a canal while trying to reach England in small boats.