Migrants on the Canal were left to their own devices and drowned: ‘We are in the water, it’s over’ | Abroad

By 2 a.m. the first call came in to the French rescue brigade. A migrant said that he was sailing on a boat on the Channel with about 30 others and that the boat had broken down. They were in danger. Three minutes later there was another call. Now it sounded more desperate. “Help us!” it sounded on the phone. Screaming and crying could be heard in the background.

The boat was located just after 2 a.m. “We are sending help as soon as possible,” said a French rescuer. But help never came. At 3:30 am another migrant called again. The rubber boot was leaking. “I’m in the water,” he said. The French emergency service replied: “Yes, but you are in British waters.”

In just over an hour and a half, migrants on the sinking boat called French aid workers a total of 15 times during the night of November 23 to 24 last year. But no lifeboat was sent. The boat sank and 27 people drowned, including six women and a little girl. Only two migrants survived.

This is apparent from a meticulous reconstruction that the French daily Le Monde has made. The newspaper has seen the criminal file and read all reports of the communication between the migrants and aid workers that night. “The rescue services did not send any help and did not properly assess the dangers,” the newspaper said. “On the contrary: they shifted the aid to the British.”

The French rescuers called their British colleagues that night. “I have a boat that is close to your waters, 0.6 nautical miles,” was the message around 2 a.m. At 2:30 am, the French called the British again: “They are now in your zone.” The responsibility was waived. “If they call again now, you have to refer them to 999 (the British emergency number, ed.),” French aid workers said to each other around 2.30 am.

About an hour and a half later, the French phone rang again. “We are in the water. It is over. Finished,” said one migrant. Screams could be heard in the background again. “Help us, please. Help us, we’re dying. We are in the water and it is cold.” On the French side the answer was: ,,Where did you leave from in France?”

French rescuers continued to tell the migrants to call 999 as they were now in British waters. One of the two survivors, an Iraqi, told police they had also called British emergency services. “They said the waves would have pushed us back into French waters by the time they could get there. So they didn’t come.”

Several French rescuers have been heard by police, said Le Monde, who quotes from the reports. “Migrants call and shout from the water all the time, even when nothing is wrong,” said one of them. “We have two boats and a helicopter while sometimes 30 to 50 boats are sailing the Channel at the same time,” said another. “We can’t handle it. We knew this would happen one day.”

Le Monde describes how a fisherman finally raised the alarm in the afternoon of November 24. ,,Uh….we just passed by, um…, migrants. Well actually: along mortal remains”, he reported from his ship to the rescue brigade on land. “Are they in a boat, are they dead?” the rescuer added. “No, they are in the water. They are dead.”

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