France: Accused people smugglers go on trial over deadly Channel accident

Fourteen accused people-smugglers will stand trial in France on Tuesday, in connection with the deadliest recorded small-boat accident in the English Channel.

Twenty-seven people, most of them Iraqi Kurds, were confirmed dead after their inflatable dinghy sank in November 2021.

Four other passengers are still unaccounted for. Only two people were rescued.

According to testimony from the two survivors, their flimsy boat began to deflate and take on water after several hours at sea.

Passengers fell overboard and drowned one after another, despite making around a dozen desperate calls for help to French and British rescue services.

The victims, aged between 7 and 46, were mostly Iraqi Kurds, but also included Afghans, Ethiopians and Egyptians.

Most of the defendants were born in Afghanistan. They face charges including manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group.

Rescue services under investigation

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 around a dozen relatives who travelled from Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

British and French authorities are also under investigation for for failing to help a person in danger. A UK enquiry earlier this year found some of the deaths would have been "avoidable" if the authorities had acted sooner to rescue those onboard. 


Despite several distress calls, it was nearly 12 hours after the first pleas for help before the boat was finally found by a French fishing vessel.

By that time, most of those on board had drowned. The separate case could eventually lead to another trial.

"Justice must hold accountable everyone who played a role in this tragedy," said lawyer Matthieu Chirez, who represents 113 civil parties.

Another lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, expressed hope that the three-week trial would be an opportunity to see would-be migrants not as "statistics or commodities, but human beings in search of a better life."

Thousands of migrants every year attempt the dangerous Channel crossing, hoping to reach Britain from France.

'Unfit for navigation'

Prosecutors have accused the defendants of helping launch a "substandard small boat, uncertified, unfit for navigation on the open sea, overcrowded and lacking appropriate life jackets."

Liability has also been extended to those accused of transporting, housing or accompanying the victims, actions that formed part of a "chain of successive events" leading to the tragedy, according to investigators.

The defendants have denied being smugglers and disputed their responsibility, or have presented themselves as migrants seeking to make the journey themselves.

However, phone records and location tracking placed several of them near the departure site and linked them to organising crossings to Britain.

The investigation uncovered two migrant-smuggling networks, one Afghan and the other Iraqi.