UK and French coastguards ‘passed buck’ as 27 people drowned in Channel
-Crucial hours wasted debating who should rescue dinghy carrying 34 passengers, ITV documentary reveals

27人在英吉利海峡溺亡,英国和法国海岸警卫队相互“踢皮球”
——英国独立电视台的纪录片揭示,关键的几个小时被浪费在争论到底应该谁去救载有34名乘客的小艇上


(People’s belongings, along with a deflated dinghy, life jacket and engines, lie on a beach in Wimereux, near Calais, the morning after the drownings.)

(溺水事件发生后的第二天早上,遇难者的物品,连同一艘瘪了的小艇、救生衣和发动机,躺在加莱附近维默鲁的海滩上。)
新闻:
原创翻译:龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


UK and French emergency coastguard services spent crucial hours passing the buck about which of them should rescue a stricken small boat trying to cross the Channel last November, instead of dispatching a crew to save the 34 people onboard, a documentary reveals.

一部纪录片显示,去年11月,英国和法国的紧急海岸警卫队在关键的几个小时里都在踢皮球,争论到底应该谁去救一艘试图横渡英吉利海峡的遇难小船,而不是派出一个救援组去拯救船上的34人。

Most of the migrants subsequently drowned in the worst maritime disaster in the Channel for 30 years.

大多数落水移民随后在这一英吉利海峡30年来最严重的海难中溺亡。

The revelations come at a time when Channel crossings in small boats have reached record levels, with about 40,000 people having crossed so far this year.

这些消息披露之际,小船横渡英吉利海峡的人数达到了创纪录的水平,今年迄今已有大约4万人横渡英吉利海峡。

The documentary, The Crossing, part of ITV’s award-winning Exposure series, has gained access to documents that provide new evidence about the fatal journey of the 34 passengers onboard the overcrowded dinghy. At least 27 people died, with five still missing and two survivors.

英国独立电视台获奖纪录片《曝光》的一部分,纪录片《穿越》获得了有关这艘拥挤的小艇上34名乘客致命旅程的新证据。至少27人死亡,5人失踪,2人幸存。

Issa Mohammed, a Somali asylum seeker and one of the two survivors, provides a detailed testimony in the documentary. He said: “Children were screaming. All I could hear were the screams of children drowning. I saw dead bodies floating by my side. That’s when the horror kicked in.”

两名幸存者之一、寻求庇护的索马里人伊萨·穆罕默德在纪录片中提供了详细的证词。他说:“孩子们在尖叫。我只能听到孩子们溺水的尖叫声。我看到尸体在我身边漂浮。就在这时,恐惧开始袭来。”

Internal legal documents obtained by the documentary team set out in minute-by-minute detail the events of that night, based on the French coastguard’s emergency log of the incident.

根据法国海岸警卫队对该事件的紧急记录,纪录片小组获得的内部法律文件精确到分详细记录了当晚发生的事件。

While the French coastguard has disclosed its record 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 Marine Accident Investigation Branch is conducting an investigation.

作为法国对这场悲剧调查的一部分,法国海岸警卫队披露了向此案律师拨打紧急电话的记录,但英国海岸警卫队迄今没有披露。在英国,这一海上事故调查处正在进行调查。

At 4.34am on 24 November the French coastguard closed its incident log assuming it had been dealt with by British rescue services. This was not the case.

11月24日凌晨4点34分,法国海岸警卫队关闭了事故记录,以为英国救援机构已经处理好了。但事实并非如此。

While UK logs of the mass drowning have not been disclosed, internal UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency documents have raised questions about how SOS calls from small boats are handled. One document reveals a flowchart for search and rescue termination of a migrant incident. It states: “UK Border Force determine if vessel will meet UKBF criteria to deploy tactics.”

虽然英国没有公开集体溺水的记录,但英国海事和海岸警卫队的内部文件提出了关于如何处理来自小船的SOS呼叫的问题。一份文件显示了一个移民事件的搜索和救援终止流程图。声明称:“英国边境部队决定船只是否符合英国边境部队管理局的标准,以部署战术。”

Another internal document, titled Broadcast Action for Migrant Incidents, states there has been confusion about when a mayday distress call can be broadcast in relation to migrant boats in distress.

另一份名为《针对移民事件的广播行动》的内部文件指出,对于何时可以广播遇险移民船的呼救呼叫,一直存在界定不清。

The document says: “The actions taken in the distress phase can be different for small boat migrant incidents to other more conventional distress incidents and if the SMC [senior mission commander] considers that distress broadcast is not appropriate for small boat migrant incidents then that is acceptable.”

该文件称:“针对小船移民事件,在遇险阶段采取的行动可能与其他更常规的遇险事件有所不同。如果任务高级指挥官认为遇险广播不适用于小船移民事件,那么这(不启动救援机制)就是可以接受的。”

According to the internal French legal documents, the first call for help from passengers on the dinghy to the French coastguard at the Cross Gris-Nez regional office came at 1.48am on 24 November when the boat started taking in water and began to deflate. The engine stopped and efforts by the passengers to bale out the water from the dinghy also failed.

根据法国内部法律文件,11月24日凌晨1点48分,这艘小船上的乘客第一次向格里斯-内兹地区的法国海岸警卫队呼叫求救,当时小船开始进水并开始漏气气。引擎停止了,乘客试图从小艇里舀出水的努力也失败了。

The passengers were informed wrongly by the emergency services that help was on its way. Passengers sent the GPS location of the boat to the emergency services repeatedly but as the hours went by they lost hope and drowned one by one.

紧急服务部门错误地通知乘客救援正在路上。乘客们不断向紧急服务机构发送GPS定位,但随着时间的流逝,他们失去了希望,一个接一个地淹死了。

Emergency services could hear the screams of people drowning. Passengers begged them to come, saying: “We are dying come and get us.”

急救人员可以听到溺水者的尖叫声。乘客们恳求他们过来,说:“我们快死了,快来捞我们。”

At 2.28am, the French coastguard called its English equivalent, gave the position of the boat and said that now it was in English waters it was no longer its responsibility, according to the internal legal documents.

根据内部法律文件,凌晨2点28分,法国海岸警卫队呼叫了英国海岸警卫队,给出了该船的位置,并表示现在该船位于英国水域,不再由其负责。

At 2.44am, the English coastguard emailed Cross Gris-Nez to say it considered the boat was in French territorial waters as it could hear a continental ringtone on a passenger’s phone.

凌晨2点44分,英国海岸警卫队发电子邮件给格里斯-内兹说,他们认为这艘船在法国领海内,因为他们听到了一名乘客手机上的欧洲大陆铃声。

At 4.16am, a last call was made to the French coastguard, saying: “People are in the water, it’s over.”

凌晨4点16分,法国海岸警卫队接到了最后一通电话:“人们都在水里,全都完了。”

At the same time, a vessel called Concerto reported seeing a small boat in distress and asked the emergency services if it should rescue it. Cross Gris-Nez said another rescue boat was on its way but no rescue took place.

与此同时,一艘名为“协奏曲”号的船只报告说,看到一艘小船遇险,并询问紧急服务部门是否应该救援它。格里斯-内兹答复,另一艘救援船正在前往的途中,但其实并没有救援行动发生。

Matthew Schanck, a maritime expert instructed by lawyers for some of the victims’ families, said: “The fact of the matter is that over 30 people were left in the middle of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world slowly perishing one by one and almost nothing happened.”

受部分遇难者家属律师委托的海事专家马修·尚克表示:“事实是,30多人被留在世界上最繁忙的航道之一的中心,一个接一个地慢慢死去,而几乎什么(救援)都没有发生。”

A government spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with the families of all of 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 focusing on the emergency response to the incident, which HM Coastguard and the Home Office are fully cooperating with.

一位政府发言人说:“我们与在去年11月的悲剧事件中失去生命的所有人的家庭同在。按照这种情况下的标准做法,海上事故调查处正在进行安全调查,重点是对事故的紧急反应,英国海岸警卫队和内政部正在全力配合。

“It would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is ongoing.”

“在调查进行期间,不适合进一步置评。”

Cross Gris-Nez has been approached for comment.

我们已经联系了格里斯-内兹,请其置评。