32 years old, he was arrested on Monday in southern England. He “is suspected of being a member of an organized criminal group” and of having “played a key role” in the death of these exiles, underlines the British agency for the fight against crime.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The investigation is advancing. A man was arrested Tuesday, November 28 in the United Kingdom as part of the investigation into the death of twenty-seven migrants who had the sinking while crossed the Channel on a pneumatic boat in November 2021, announced the agency Fighting British crime, NCA.
32 years old, Harem Ahmed Abwbaker was arrested in southwest England and “is suspected of being a member of an organized criminal group who conspired to transport migrants to the United Kingdom to edge of a small boat, “reported the NCA in a press release.
“The individual detained today is suspected of having played a key role in the manslaughter of those who died,” added the deputy director of the NCA, Craig Turner, following this Arrest, specifying that the British agency works on the file “in close collaboration with [its] French partners”.
The man will remain in detention before appearing on Wednesday “before the Westminster Court of First Instance, where the extradition procedure will begin,” added the British agency. On the French side, ten alleged members of the network of smugglers at the origin of the sinking were indicted this summer.
A survey overwhelming the emergency services
In a survey published on November 13, built on the elements of the current judicial inquiry, MO12345lemonde revealed that the passengers of this makeshift boat which was sinking in the night of November 23 to 24, 2021 offshore Calais had called the French authorities to ask them for fifteen times to ask them for help, in vain. French help have waited for them to go through English waters and no rescue means were sent to them.
Twenty -seven migrants aged 7 to 46 years – sixteen Kurds of Iraq, a Kurd of Iran, four Afghans, three Ethiopians, a Somali, an Egyptian and a Vietnamese – had perished in the sinking, while They were trying to join Great Britain. Only two passengers, an Iraqi Kurdish and a Sudanese, could have been rescued.
The question of migrant crossings in the Channel is the subject of strong tensions between Paris and London in recent years. The two countries have signed an agreement in mid-November, which provides in particular an envelope of 72.2 million euros that the British will have to pay in 2022-2023 to France to increase the number of police officers and gendarmes by 800 to 900 French beaches, from which migrants leave.
More than 40,000 migrants arrived in the United Kingdom after crossing the Channel aboard small boats this year, a record.