French trial starts over deaths in sinking of migrant boat

Following the sinking of a refugee boat in the English Channel with seven fatalities, the trial of nine suspected smugglers whose network extends as far as Germany opened in Paris on Tuesday.

The prosecution has charged the nine men from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan with involuntary manslaughter, endangerment and aiding and abetting illegal entry.

The boat, overcrowded with 65 migrants, sank in August 2023 after an engine failure on its way from Calais to the United Kingdom. Rescue workers recovered six bodies from the water, another body was later found on a beach in the Netherlands.

Investigations by several European countries brought to light “an organized and structured system on French and German territory that offered migrants without residence permits the opportunity to reach England,” broadcaster France Info quoted from the indictment.

According to the indictment, the network was “run by the Iraqi-Kurdish community.”

A first branch of the organization reportedly based in Germany took care of the logistics. An “Afghan cell,” on the other hand, was apparently responsible for recruiting candidates for the crossing.

The smugglers are said to have collected between €1,300 ($1,492) and €1,500 per person for the crossing to the UK.

For years, migrants have been crossing the English Channel in small rubber dinghies to reach Great Britain. Time and again, people lose their lives during the dangerous crossing, which is travelled by many large ships.

In the worst migrant shipwreck, 27 migrants lost their lives four years ago.