Survivor of deadly Channel sinking says migrants ‘treated like animals’

Migrants board a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy as they attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Great Britain at Sangatte beach near Calais, northern France. (File/AFP)

• The victims were mainly Iraqi Kurds and included at least seven women, a 16-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl
• Victims screamed in the water and drowned in the dark awaiting help, Omar told the inquiry, saying it felt as though they were “treated like animals”

LONDON: A Somali survivor of the deadliest “small boats” Channel crossing on record told a UK inquiry Tuesday that drowning migrants were “treated like animals” and died awaiting rescue.
Issa Mohamed Omar was one of only two survivors after an inflatable dinghy carrying people across from France capsized on November 24, 2021, killing at least 27 people.
The victims were mainly Iraqi Kurds and included at least seven women, a 16-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl. Four people remain missing.
Even though passengers made distress calls, they were “left in the water for more than 12 hours without rescue,” according to Rory Phillips, a lawyer advising the inquiry in London.
Victims screamed in the water and drowned in the dark awaiting help, Omar told the inquiry, saying it felt as though they were “treated like animals.”
“If rescue (had) come quickly, I believe half of those people would be still alive today,” the 31-year-old said, speaking via video link and an interpreter.
“Because we have been seen as refugees, that’s the reason why I believe the rescue did not come at all,” he said.
More than 36,800 people crossed the Channel between the UK and France in 2024, up 25 percent on the previous year.
The two countries have for years sought to stop people making the dangerous crossing, but migrants often pay smugglers thousands of euros for the passage aboard small boats.
Omar said their crowded boat began to capsize early in the morning, and that many of the distress calls to British emergency services went unheeded during the “harrowing” ordeal.
“All night I was holding to what was remaining of the boat,” he said. “We were all in shock, I never thought I would experience such a thing.”
He said he was eventually rescued by French fishermen and spent four months recovering in hospital in France from injuries he sustained as the boat capsized.
Omar said he left Somalia after his father was killed in the civil war and told the inquiry he had hoped to reach the UK to help his family.
As a survivor, Omar said he now had a responsibility to act as a “voice for those people who passed away.”
The UK inquiry focuses on the role of the British authorities and will seek to identify “lessons” that can be learned.
It takes place in parallel with legal proceedings in France, where seven military personnel have been charged with failing to assist a person in danger and several suspected smugglers are being prosecuted.
The UK inquiry will also take evidence from members of the British coast guard and rescue services. The hearings are due to run until March 27.