Small boat migrant found dead riddled with bullets on French coast after being gunned down ‘by people smugglers'
MIGRANT SHOOTING Small boat migrant found dead riddled with bullets on French coast after being gunned down 'by people smugglers'
A SMALL boat migrant has been found dead after being shot seven times by suspected people smugglers - with a murder enquiry launched.
The deceased man - in his late teens or early 20s – is the latest victim of a surge of shootings around a camp at Loon-Plage, on the outskirts of Dunkirk.
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Migrants hoping to reach the UK by small boat clash with police
Credit: Chris Eades
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Police fought battles with migrants trying to board small boats at Dunkirk
Credit: Chris Eades
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French police officers puncture a smuggler's boat with a knife to prevent migrants from embarking
Credit: AFP
Investigating sources revealed on Monday: "He was hit by seven bullets.
"The camp was full of people hoping to get to Britain, when he was confronted by gunmen.
"Around twenty bullets were fired in all, and seven entered the man's body."
The source added how emergency service workers were at the scene but tragically couldn't save him.
The Dunkirk prosecutor visited the crime scene, which on Monday was blocked off, and surrounded by armed police.
The hunt was meanwhile launched for the "suspected people smugglers" responsible for murder, said the source.
It was the latest in a long list of heinous shootings around Loon-Plage beach, from where small inflatable boats with migrants onboard regularly set off for Britain.
In June, a Sudanese man was shot dead and a mother-and-child wounded by suspected people smugglers the same camp.
The horrific bloodbath unfolded when a gang opened fire on specific targets, while hitting passers-by.
Two males – a man and a 17-year-old minor connected to a people smuggling gang – were then arrested, and face charges of "murder by an organised gang' and "attempted murder by an organised gang."
There were also charges related to possession of a range of weapons, believed to include pistols and rifles.
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Beyond the dead Sudanese man, three other men were seriously wounded and taken to hospital in Dunkirk.
All of the violence is said to be linked to people smugglers "settling scores" against those who do not pay them.
The cost of a single voyage to Britain in a small boat is now as much as £1500 cash.
In December, a gun enthusiast was charged with the murders of five men including UK-bound migrants around Loon Plage.
Frenchman Paul Domis, 22, was remanded in custody after confessing to a lethal shooting spree in the area.
During less than an hour of intense violence, Domis allegedly targeted three former colleagues, and two Iraqi-Kurds who had intended to get to Britain on small boats.
Charlotte Huet, the Dunkirk prosecutor, said Domis faced 'life in prison' for 'three targetted assassinations' of men he knew, and two further charges of 'murder' of the migrants.
Domis will be remanded in custody until a quintuple murder trial is held later this year, or in 2026.
The Loon-Plage camp is an illegal one, but growing everyday as migrants from all over the world arrive.
In the first half of this year, some 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK, up almost 50 per cent on the corresponding period last year.
Numbers of what the British government calls "irregular migrants" keep rising, with 638 arriving on the coast of England in the seven days to last Friday.
Bruno Retailleau, France's Interior Minister, regularly pledges tougher action against the highly organised smuggling guns operating in northern France.
He said: "Our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organising these crossings of death."
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