A man of Syrian nationality was indicted and imprisoned on Sunday as part of the investigation into the shipwreck in the Channel which cost the life of a migrant on Friday, we learned from the prosecution. This man from Syrian Kurdistan, born in 1993, was indicted for involuntary homicide, involuntary injuries, deliberate endangerment and aiding illegal entry and stay, said the public prosecutor of Saint-Omer Mehdi Benbouzid.
He is suspected of having piloted the boat which transported around sixty migrants, including children, which he denies, according to the prosecutor. The second pilot is still being sought. Having left Oye-Plage (Pas-de-Calais) during the night from Thursday to Friday, the boat capsized off the coast of Gravelines (North).
Two other passengers “apparently missing”
In addition to the man who died in the shipwreck, two other passengers are “apparently missing”, according to the maritime prefecture. Another migrant was killed on Friday on Sangatte beach, during an attempted crossing which came to an end. As part of this investigation, a 33-year-old Iraqi man was still in police custody on Sunday, said the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office. His police custody was extended to 96 hours, the authorized duration for a suspected case of organized crime.
In this second case, a boat left loaded with around 70 people, while “around forty other migrants who were planning to join” the group remained on the Sangatte beach, then the boat returned “to the following an engine failure”, according to the prosecution. Present on the beach, “the police wanted to intervene,” reports the prosecution. “The accused appears to be linked to the crossing scene but also inciting a certain number of migrants to attack the police when the boat returned.”
The victim’s cause of death remains to be determined, as his autopsy has not yet taken place on Sunday. On Friday alone, 292 migrants reached the United Kingdom after crossing the Channel in seven boats, according to a count from the British Home Office. On Saturday, 55 of them reached it, on a single canoe. Some 29,000 migrants have crossed the Channel on small boats since the start of the year, compared to 44,000 last year on the same date, the Northern prefecture said on December 4, welcoming “the constant mobilization of the forces of the order”.