A migrant was shot dead, and another was injured near the Loon-Plage camp in northern France, while the judicial police and the Central Office to Combat Migrant Trafficking opened an investigation. The injured person was a 33-year-old Iraqi, while the identity of the deceased was not confirmed.
Dunkirk prosecutor Charlotte Hutet said on Sunday, February 4, that a man died in the night “as a result of a gunshot wound” after having been “found, still alive, on the banks of the A16, in the town of Grande-Synthe then transported to hospital,” according to the “InfoMigrants” website.
She added: “According to the first elements of the investigation, this man resided in a migrant camp near the place where he was found” she clarified, adding that “his identity is being confirmed”.
The Public Prosecutor added that a second person also lived in this camp. According to first responders, he was injured, but his life was not threatened.
An investigation was opened, entrusted to the judicial police. No arrests have taken place at this stage.
Claire Mellott, of the Peace Society, which helps exiles in camps in this region, estimates that the number of people currently living there is between 500 and 600, and she says that these tensions are sometimes “a settling of scores between smugglers and sometimes between smugglers and clients,” in the context of areas that must be defended, as starting points for passages to Britain.
Many points in this coastal region of northern France are transit places for migrants heading to Britain across the English Channel.
On January 31, French authorities rescued 69 migrants from drowning. Two days earlier, 388 migrants were able to cross the English Channel. The House of Lords postponed the implementation of a “new treaty” concluded by the United Kingdom with Rwanda until Kigali improves its asylum procedures.
Last October, police evacuated a camp in Loon-Plage where nearly 2,000 migrants were living, including families and unaccompanied minors.
