PARIS (AP) — Thirteen people were sentenced to prison terms of up to 10 years on Wednesday in connection with the sinking of a boat in the English Channel nearly five years ago, in one of the biggest tragedies of migrants making the dangerous crossing.
A total of 31 migrants, most of whom were Iraqi Kurds, died in November 2021 when their boat sank.
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Fourteen people, including two who remain at large, had been on trial since Sept. 8. One of them was acquitted. They were accused of organizing the crossing of a small boat that was unfit for navigation on the open sea, was overloaded and lacked appropriate life jackets.
Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer for victims’ families, said that “when it costs the lives of 31 people and the sea becomes a cemetery, there is a price, and the court said that the price they had to pay was justice and prison time.”
Meanwhile, an investigation into seven military personnel who have been indicted for failing to assist the shipwreck survivors is still underway.
Following an alert from a fishing vessel about bodies in the water off the coast of Calais, French authorities recovered 27 bodies, including two teenagers and a child. Four others weren't recovered.
The court said that the trial highlighted the dramatic consequences of the methods used by smugglers driven by greed “profiting from the vulnerability of exile candidates.”
Court documents said that one of the survivors told investigators that he had taken part in an earlier failed attempt to cross the Channel with 53 other migrants. They were brought back to French shores by rescue teams.
He said that his family in Iraq funded his passage, having paid $3,200, according to the documents.
He said that the same smugglers’ network organized the second attempt on Nov. 24 when the small boat sank. After it was prepared in a wooded area, the gray boat equipped with a 40 CV outboard motor was launched. The migrants, wearing life jackets provided by the smugglers, set out to sea at around 10 p.m. local time.
Four hours later, the boat began to deflate, and with the motor having stopped, it drifted at the mercy of the currents. Some passengers then wanted to return to France, while others wanted to reach England and several people who spoke English tried to contact emergency services.
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Nicolas Vaux-Montagny reported from Saint-Etienne, France.
