Most of the migrants subsequently drowned in the worst maritime disaster in the English Channel for 30 years. The revelations come at a time when small boat crossings have reached record levels, with around 40,000 people crossing so far this year. The documentary The Crossing, part of ITV’s award-winning Exposure series, has gained access to documents which provide new evidence into the fateful journey of the 34 passengers on the overcrowded boat. At least 27 people died, with five missing and two survivors. Issa Mohammed, a Somali asylum seeker and one of two survivors, provides a detailed account in the documentary. He said: “The children were screaming. All I could hear were the screams of drowning children. I saw corpses floating beside me. That’s when the horror began.” Internal legal documents obtained by the documentary team detail minute by minute the events of that night, based on the French coast guard’s emergency log of the incident. While the French coastguard has released the history of emergency calls to lawyers in the case as part of the French investigation into the tragedy, so far its UK counterpart has not. In the UK, the Maritime Accident Investigation Branch is investigating. At 4.34 am on 24 November the French coastguard closed the incident log on the assumption that it had been dealt with by British rescue services. This was not the case. While the logs of the UK mass drowning have not been released, internal documents from the UK Maritime and Coastguard have raised questions about how SOS calls from small boats are handled. A document reveals a flow chart for ending a search and rescue incident involving migrants. It states: “The UK Border Force determines whether the vessel will meet the UKBF criteria for tactical deployment.” Another internal document, entitled Broadcast Action for Migrant Incidents, says there has been confusion about when a Mayday distress call can be broadcast in relation to migrant boats in distress. The document states: “Actions taken in the distress phase may differ for small boat migrant incidents from other more conventional distress incidents and if the SMC [senior mission commander] considers that the distress broadcast is not appropriate for small boat migrant incidents, then that is acceptable.” According to internal French legal documents, the first call for help from the boat’s passengers to the French coast guard at the Cross Gris-Nez regional office came at 1.48am. on Nov. 24, when the boat began to enter the water and began to deflate. The engine stopped and attempts by the passengers to bail the water out of the dinghy also failed. Passengers were wrongly told by emergency services that help was on the way. The passengers repeatedly sent the boat’s GPS position to emergency services but as the hours passed they lost hope and drowned one by one. Emergency services could hear the screams of people who were drowning. The passengers begged them to come, saying, “We are dying, come and get us.” At 2.28am, the French coastguard called its English counterpart, gave the vessel’s location and said it was now in English waters and was no longer their responsibility, according to internal legal documents. At 2.44am, the English coastguard emailed the Cross Gris-Nez to say it believed the vessel was in French territorial waters as it could hear a continental dial tone on a passenger’s phone. At 4.16am, a final call was made to the French coast guard, saying: “The world is in the water, it’s over.” At the same time, a vessel called Concerto reported seeing a small vessel in distress and asked emergency services if they should rescue it. Cross Gris-Nez said another rescue boat was en route, but no rescue took place. Matthew Schanck, a shipping expert instructed by lawyers for some of the families of the victims, said: “The truth is that over 30 people were stuck in the middle of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and slowly disappeared one by one. and almost nothing happened.” A government spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with the families of all those who lost their lives in the tragic incident last November. As is standard practice in such circumstances, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch is conducting a safety investigation with an emergency focus on the incident, with which HM Coastguard and the Home Office are fully co-operating. “It would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is ongoing.” Cross Gris-Nez has been approached for comment.
