Channel rescuers accused of manslaughter in migrant deaths

PARIS (AP) — The Paris prosecutor’s office said it has received a manslaughter lawsuit for failure to help in the tragic capsizing last month of a boat in the English Channel that cost the lives of at least 27 people trying to reach Britain. The manslaughter lawsuit, filed by the humanitarian organization Utopia 56, accuses the maritime prefect of the Channel and North Sea, the Regional Operational Centre for Surveillance and Rescue of Gris-Nez in the Pas-de-Calais and the British Coast Guard of not doing enough to prevent the deaths. Utopia 56 said it “intends that investigations be carried out to determine the responsibilities of the French and British rescue services in this tragedy.”