Suspected smugglers on trial over deadliest migrant tragedy in France

What the report says

A trial has opened in Paris over the 2021 English Channel disaster that became the deadliest migrant crossing on record between France and the United Kingdom. According to Al Jazeera, 14 men are facing charges tied to people smuggling and manslaughter in connection with the boat sinking that killed at least 31 migrants and asylum seekers.

The case involves 114 civil parties, including relatives of the dead. Only nine of the accused were present at the start of proceedings on Tuesday, and two are being tried in absentia. The court is expected to hear the case over about three weeks. Prosecutors say the defendants were part of smuggling networks that organized departures from camps in northern France and used an overcrowded inflatable dinghy that was not fit for open-sea travel and lacked proper life jackets.

The victims were reported to include mostly Iraqi Kurds, as well as people from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Vietnam, ranging in age from seven to 46. The boat deflated and capsized in the busy shipping lane on November 24, 2021; two people survived and four were later listed as missing. A survivor’s account read in court described the vessel taking on water before it overturned.

The trial follows a UK inquiry published in February that said some deaths may have been avoidable and found that a French naval vessel did not respond to one alert from the UK coastguard. More broadly, the case has drawn attention to the risks faced by migrants trying to cross the Channel and to the cross-border challenges of rescue and enforcement.