Refugees who traveled to the United Kingdom by boat across the English Channel claimed that officials regularly redirected them to the French emergency services after they called the British part of the English Channel that they believed to be the British part of the Channel, so they called on the British Coast Guard to review its procedures.
Relatives and survivors Collective tragedy In the Strait, where at least 27 people were killed on November 24, the French and British coast guards have made multiple calls for help, and the UK has told them to contact the French rescue service.
The government secretly threatened the commander Dan O’Mahoney (Dan O’Mahoney), Tell the parliamentary human rights committee This month, he couldn’t say with certainty whether the people on the ship had called for help.
The Guardian received testimony from several refugees who tried to cross the strait in a small boat in recent weeks and months, and they made the same request.
A group of refugees interviewed by the Guardian In Calais on October 18, he tried to cross the English Channel a few hours ago but almost drowned. They said they called the British Coast Guard, who told them to call the French Coast Guard. The latter eventually rescued them and brought them back to Canada a few hours after their fragile ship set sail.
The crew of a small boat tried to get from France On November 20, four days before the massive drowning, they said they had called the French and British coast guards when their ship encountered difficulties in a place they believed to belong to the English Channel.
“The British told us to call the French even without asking for our GPS location,” said a survivor who almost drowned. “We called the French and they asked our GPS location and told us that we were in British waters. No one came to rescue us-neither in English nor French. Finally we called the French organization Utopia 56 and told them that we were Location. They called the French emergency services and they came to rescue us and bring us back to Calais.”
The refugee said this was his fourth attempt to cross the strait. In the first three attempts, French police caught them on the beach and pierced their boat with a knife.
“I was scared on the boat. When no one came to rescue us, I thought we were over. I personally thought we were going to die,” he told the Guardian. “The British Coast Guard should not abandon us. When we tell them we believe we are on the British side of the English Channel, they should save us.”
A Utopia 56 spokesperson confirmed that the passengers on board sent them a series of distress messages on November 20. He called on the two governments to take their responsibilities at sea seriously.
A voice message to Utopia 56 said: “Sir, we are still waiting. No one is coming. We are really afraid that no one is coming. Please try to send someone.” A second voice can be heard saying: “Please, please , Please.”
A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coast Guard denied the claim that the 999 calls made by passengers on the boat in distress in the strait had been redirected to the French.
She said that on November 24, 2021, the Coast Guard received more than 90 alerts from the English Channel region, including 999 emergency calls. “Every call is answered, evaluated and acted upon. In this case, we will not ask the caller instead of us to call the French authorities,” the spokesperson added.
One of the challenges of rescuing boats on the busiest waterway in the world is not knowing where the maritime border between Britain and France is. This is not shown on Google Maps, nor reflected by the telephone network-when the telephone network switches from French to English, it is not necessarily on the maritime border.
Maria Thomas of Duncan Lewis Law Firm received a similar report saying that someone believed they were trapped on the British side of the English Channel and was told to contact the French.
She said: “These allegations are very worrying and must be fully investigated. The families of the victims should give a full and frank account of what happened, and fully transparent cooperation between the British and French authorities is clearly essential.
“Both parties have clear obligations in search and rescue operations. The idea that a ship in distress can simply bounce between operators is shocking.”
