Shocking survivor testimony of Deaths in the Channel Refugee drowning
Hat tip to Spotlight Newspaper
Most of the mainstream media and of course
the BBC has ignored this story. The 27 refugees who drowned in The Channel last
week (3 are still missing) could have been saved. They phoned both the British and
French Police and told them of their plight and where they were but instead of
organising a rescue, both sets of authorities told them they were in the others’
country. There were just 2 survivors.
For 12 hours the refugees were alive and
freezing but the callous bastards on both sides of the Channel preferred them
to drown rather than organise a rescue.
No doubt Priti Patel is very happy at the outcome as it means 32 less refugees
in this country.
These refugees have a right to seek
refuge in this country. As the late Ambalavaner Sivanandan said
‘We are here because you were there. These
and other refugees are the consequence of the wars we wage in the Middle East and
elsewhere. It is the least we can do to welcome them here by way of recompense
for what we have done in their countries.
Tony Greenstein
In an article French and British
police ignored drowning migrants in Channel, says survivor The Telegraph reported
that
A survivor of the Channel boat tragedy claimed on
Sunday that migrants phoned both French and British police forces but their
pleas for help were ignored - leaving
them to drown.
Mr Zada, 21, who had a
miraculous escape after being treated for hypothermia, said: “We called UK police, they didn’t help us. We called the French
police and they said: ‘you are in UK territory’.”
“We were holding each other’s hands. We were almost fine until dawn. Then most of them gave up their lives. The whole night nobody died. Until dawn when many of them let go of the remaining bit of the boat and gave up their lives.”
21yr old Kurdish refugee,
Mohammed Shekha Ahmad, described how, after the boat started to deflate and
take on water, "Some people
started to pump air while others were emptying water from the boat"
but the boat continued to sink. Ahmad explains how they had actually managed to
contact both the French and British police but the authorities were squabbling
over who should be responsible for sending help…
We called the French police and asked
them to help us.. The pump was defective. We sent our location to the French
police, and they said, you are inside British water… So, we were inside the
British water and called the British police for help, but they said call the
French police.
Ahmad then described how
the boat sank and they all tried to hold each other’s hands ‘in order not to sink or drown’
but after a few hours in the freezing cold water ‘the people couldn't take it anymore… They all gave up on their lives’
Somalian refugee,
Muhammad Isa Omar, then described how neither the British nor the French
coastguard were responding to their cries for help..
We had jackets which included cell
phones. We called France and Britain several times, but we mostly called
Britain. 'Help us! Help us!' we said… They said, 'Send us the location.' But we
did not have the chance [to send the coordinates] and all cell phones dropped
into the water.
Omar said he was left partially
paralysed after sustaining injuries from being left to swim in the water for 10
hours.
Vigil held for Channel deaths
He said both the British and French
coastguard did not respond to their cries for help.
‘No one came,’
he told Rudaw.
‘The boat was capsizing and people were dying. I swam for ten hours in
the sea.’
He added: ‘We had jackets which included cell phones. We called France and Britain
several times, but we mostly called Britain. 'Help us! Help us!’ we said.
He said 33 passengers climbed into
the boat between 7pm and 8pm but that a faulty pump caused it to fill with
water almost immediately.
Mr Amad gave a similar account, and
said they managed to make contact with French and British police before the
boat capsized but that authorities on either side disagreed about who should
send help.
‘We called the French police and asked them to help us,’ he said.
Bodies were found floating in French
waters, a few miles from the coast, more than 12 hours later - prompting a French fisherman
to send out a mayday signal.
Mr Amad was treated for hypothermia
in France. He explained the ‘only reason’
he was trying to reach Britain was to earn money to pay for medical treatment
for his sister in India.
When the boat had first started
flooding, the passengers debated flagging down a ship they spotted in the
Channel but decided not to as they wanted to reach Britain.
Mr Amad identified the Rzgar family,
from an autonomous Kuridsh region of Iraq, as being on the boat with him to
reporters.
Kazhal Rzgar, 46, her daughters Hadya,
22, and Hasta, seven, and sons Twana, 19, and Mubin, 16, are all thought to
have drowned.
Baran Nouri Mohammedameen didn't tell her fiancé she was about to board a boat to make the crossing until the last minute
Just a week before the tragedy they
had given a media interview in which they spoke of their dream of starting a
new life in Britain.
Recent arrivals
in France say they will continue their journey to the UK, despite the deaths of
fellow Iraqi migrants on Wednesday.
Among the dead publicly identified
are a pregnant woman, children and a 24-year-old Kurdish woman from northern
Iraq trying to reunite with
her fiancé.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
The French led a search and
rescue operation for an incident that occurred in French Territorial waters on
Wednesday 24 November, where 27 people tragically died.
As part of this operation,
the French requested support from the UK, which was provided by HMG Coastguard
as soon as it was requested.
Channel crossings: Victims 'held hands in order not to drown' after boat capsized on way to Britain
