Fourteen Suspected Smugglers Go On Trial In Paris Over Channel Drowning Of 31 Migrants

Fourteen men went on trial in Paris on Tuesday on smuggling charges linked to the drowning of more than 30 people in the Channel five years ago, the worst disaster on record involving migrants in the narrow seaway separating France and Britain.

“Fourteen men went on trial in Paris on Tuesday”

Global Banking & Finance Review

Investigators allege Afghan and Iraqi-Kurdish smuggling networks organised the migrants’ passage to Britain from camps near Grande-Synthe and Calais in northern France, and the defendants face charges including involuntary manslaughter, facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy.

Africanews

The court referral order says a French fishing vessel alerted emergency services after spotting bodies floating in the waters off the French coast near Calais in November 2021, and it says 27 victims were recovered while at least four others were never found.

Only two men survived, and the youngest known victim was a 7-year-old girl, according to the Reuters court document.

The BBC reports the boat left the French coast on the evening of 23 November 2021, ran into difficulty in the middle of the Channel, and only two men survived as occupants entered the water to lessen the weight.

Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer representing many of the families, told the BBC, "Once again [the smugglers displayed] total cynicism. Migrants are not sailors," as he argued the smugglers took "the deliberate, conscious risk of sending migrants to their deaths."

The Reuters report says a British inquiry found the deaths were avoidable and concluded that a French naval vessel failed to respond to a call for help from the British coastguard, which in turn made "a number of flawed decisions", including ending a search for survivors too early.

Al Jazeera

In France, the BBC says two of the 14 defendants, alleged to be leaders of the operation, remain on the run and are being tried in absentia, while most of the others deny the charges.

The BBC adds that in France seven military personnel are under judicial investigation on a possible charge of failing to assist persons in danger, and a judge will decide whether they should stand trial.

Reuters quotes Thomas Ricard, one of the lawyers for the victims' families, saying, "This is the first step of the legal process with this trial that concerns the smugglers."

The trial is expected to last three weeks, and Reuters says it was due to last until September 30, with nine people who came from Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, due to testify at the trial.

“The trial was due to last until September 30”

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Le Monde reports the trial carries particular significance because of the high death toll and the sheer number of civil parties involved, 114 in all, including victims' families, and it says some of them traveled from Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region to testify.

Le Monde says testimony from the two survivors helped investigators partially reconstruct the events, and it reports that the survivors paid €1,500 and €2,750 for the crossing, as their flimsy boat began to deflate and take on water after several hours at sea.

Le Monde also says a separate investigation into seven French military personnel, including rescue workers and sailors, has been under investigation since 2023 for failing to help people in danger, and it says a UK inquiry released in February found some of the deaths would have been "avoidable" if British and French authorities had acted sooner to rescue those onboard.

In the BBC account, the UK inquiry found HM Coastguard in Dover had limited capacity due to chronic staff shortages and a surveillance aircraft was not launched due to poor weather conditions, while it also found a widely held belief that migrants calling from small boats exaggerated the distress, meaning the coastguard underestimated the emergency.