French investigative journalists say they have proof that migrants contacted rescue services just before their boat sank in the English Channel last November. After initially denying this was the case, French authorities now admit it was highly likely there was communication with the stranded vessel.
At dawn on the 24the of November 2021, 27 migrants drowned when their small boat sank in the icy waters of the Channel during a bid to reach England.
Until now, French maritime police, in charge of the rescue service known as CROSS, maintained that its officers only became aware of the sinking at 2pm on the 24th, after a fishing boat found the bodies of the victims.
However, journalists working for the Radio France investigation team were contacted by a source who indicated that some migrants on the boat had used the 196 emergency number to reach the CROSS during the night.
The source said the exchanges occurred in English, a language spoken by Iraqi Kurds present on the boat, as well as the person in charge of CROSS 'Gris-Nez' on the night.
When contacted about this, Véronique Magnin, the spokesperson for the maritime police in La Manche region admitted that such a call "was highly probable".
Hundreds rescued
So the question is, why were the migrants not rescued in time?
The maritime police suggest that the rescue services may not have been able to locate the boat in time, or they may have rescued another boat in trouble in the same area and not seen the initial boat.
On that particular night, it was noted that the CROSS rescued over one hundred migrants.
The maritime police deny the accusation that they told people on the boat to call the English rescue services instead.
"It wouldn't make any sense to save a hundred migrants and to leave others stranded on the other boat," Magnin said.
Legal complaint
Several hours after the sinking, the two survivors, Mohammed Shekha Ahmad and Mohammed Isa Omar both confirmed separately to Kurdish media that passengers on the boat had contacted English rescue services, who told them to contact the French instead, and vice versa.
Journalists investigating the case confirmed that the survivors repeated the same information during their interviews with French police.
It was based on this testimony that the French NGO Utopia 56 filed a legal complaint against the maritime police in La Manche, the director of the CROSS and also British coast guards for "manslaughter and "failure to provide assistance".
In a bid to resolve the case, the CROSS has handed over 5,000 communications recorded in the 24 hours period surrounding the sinking to the national body in charge of combatting organised crime (Junalco).
The analysis of this data, which includes all shipping messages, will determine how the French rescue services reacted to the distress call.
The other remaining question concerns the position of the boat - was it in French or British waters at the time it sank? According to an expert hired by families of the victims in England, the final confirmed position was 1000 nautical miles inside British waters.
This does not however exonerate French services, as according to an international maritime convention of (signed by France and the UK), "both sides are obliged to coordinate their search and rescue services with neighbouring states," the expert said.
