Six smugglers jailed for manslaughter over worst Channel small boats disaster

Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, File photo from 2021 of a beach in northern France used by migrants to attempt the Channel crossing to EnglandSix people traffickers have been found guilty in France of causing the deaths of 31 migrants in the worst ever small-boat accident in the Channel.At the end of a four-week trial in Paris, the six were convicted of "involuntary homicide" and given prison terms of between six and 10 years.Seven others were given lesser sentences of up to four years, and one person was found not guilty.The boat went down early in the morning on 24 November 2021 after sending distress calls to French and British coastguards. The dead, including a child of seven, were mainly Iraqi Kurds but also included Afghans, Egyptians and Iranian Kurds. Only two men survived.The charge sheet said the migrants had been put to sea from the French coast in a boat "that was of poor quality, uncertified, unsuitable for navigation at sea, overloaded, and without correct life jackets".The trial established that the guilty men were members of two separate networks – one of which was Iraqi Kurd, the other Afghan – that co-operated to organise the cross-channel journey...