UK: Man arrested in shipwreck of 27 migrants who died in English Channel in 2021

A man was arrested on Tuesday in the UK as part of an investigation into the November 2021 death of 27 migrants who were shipwrecked while crossing the English Channel in a rubber boat, the British Crime Enforcement Agency (NCA) reported.

The 32-year-old man was arrested in the Cheltenham area in the southwest of England. He is “suspected of being a member of an organized crime group that conspired to smuggle migrants to the UK on a small boat and played a key role” in the drama, the NCA said in a press release. worked in cooperation with the French authorities.

“Working with our French partners, we are determined to do everything we can to bring justice to the families of the victims and dismantle the violent criminal networks involved in the trafficking of illegal immigrants,” the NCA said in a Facebook post. she is revisiting this arrest.

UK Home Secretary Swella Braveman thanked the NCA “together with other agencies in the UK and France for their tireless work to bring justice to the victims and their families by identifying those we believe are responsible for these actions. »

Twenty-seven people died in November 2021 off the coast of Calais after trying to cross the English Channel aboard an inflatable canoe. The shipwreck killed five women and a little girl. On the French side, the investigation led to the arrest at the end of June of ten suspects, mostly citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan.