Six jailed over deaths of 27 migrants in 2021 Channel crossing

A Paris court has sentenced six men to prison for manslaughter over the deaths of at least 27 people whose inflatable boat sank while attempting to cross the English Channel in November 2021. The six men received sentences ranging from six to 10 years. Seven others were convicted of lesser offences, including facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy.

Their sentences ranged from six months suspended to four years. One man was acquitted. The court heard that the boat was substandard, uncertified, unsuitable for the open sea, overcrowded and lacking enough lifejackets.

Prosecutors said the men helped launch it while acting with disregard for the passengers’ safety. The sinking occurred in the early hours of November 24, 2021. Passengers made about a dozen distress calls to French and British rescue services as the boat deflated and began taking on water.

Only two men survived. A French fishing vessel found the boat almost 12 hours after the first pleas for help. Four people remain missing, five years after the disaster.

The victims were mostly Iraqi Kurds. Others were from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Somalia, Vietnam and Egypt. The youngest known victim was a seven-year-old girl; the confirmed dead included men, women and two teenagers.

The defendants were linked to Afghan and Iraqi-Kurdish smuggling networks operating around migrant camps near Grande-Synthe and Calais in northern France. Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer for one victim’s family, described the proceedings as a trial of greed and inhumanity. A separate French investigation is examining whether seven military personnel failed to assist a person in danger.

Five worked at a maritime rescue coordination centre and two were on a patrol vessel. They deny the allegations.