A Paris criminal court has convicted 13 men over their roles in the 2021 English Channel crossing that ended with 31 migrants dead, the deadliest known migrant boat disaster in the Channel.
Fourteen men stood trial over the sinking of an inflatable boat that was carrying migrants from northern France toward the United Kingdom in November 2021. The defendants faced several charges, including involuntary homicide, assisting irregular migration, endangering others, and involvement in organized migrant smuggling.
The court sentenced the 13 convicted men to prison terms ranging from six months to 10 years. The court suspended some sentences or ordered them to be served under electronic monitoring. Six of those convicted were found guilty of involuntary homicide.
One defendant was acquitted because the court found there was insufficient evidence against him.
The court said the evidence showed that the boat was dangerously overcrowded, the life jackets provided to those on board did not meet required buoyancy standards, and the boat’s motor was defective.
The migrants had gathered near Calais on the night of Nov. 23, 2021, hoping to reach the UK. About 33 people boarded an inflatable dinghy measuring roughly 20 feet by 7 feet after paying smugglers thousands of dollars for the journey.
The boat began taking on water several hours after leaving the French coast. Passengers made repeated distress calls to French and British authorities, but the assistance they sought did not arrive in time.
Two survivors told the court that the water was extremely cold and the currents were strong. Many passengers could not swim, and those who survived did so by holding onto pieces of debris.
A fishing boat eventually discovered the migrants about 12 hours after the first distress calls. By then, most of those on board had died.
The tragedy left 31 people dead and triggered separate investigations into whether French military personnel failed to respond adequately to the emergency calls.
The Paris trial involved 113 plaintiffs, most of them relatives of people who died in the crossing. Some family members traveled from Iraqi Kurdistan to testify about their losses and their efforts to find the bodies of relatives who remained missing.
The court also examined the roles played by the defendants in arranging accommodation, transporting equipment and preparing migrants for the crossing.
One defendant described by relatives as a senior member of the smuggling network received an eight-year prison sentence. The court said phone records supported evidence about his role and rejected his claim that he was simply another migrant attempting to reach Britain.
The convictions come as Channel crossings remain a major issue for authorities in France and the UK, while investigations and prosecutions continue over migrant smuggling networks operating along the northern French coast.