It is a “sprawling” case, according to the prosecutor’s term, which is coming to a conclusion. Between the end of September and the beginning of October, a trial was held to judge 18 members of a major network of migrant crossings to England from the north of France between 2020 and 2022. “The defendants are not volunteers helping their neighbor but merchants of death”, had accused the prosecutor, describing canoes loaded with passengers “up to 15 times their theoretical capacity”.
The heaviest sentence was imposed on a 26-year-old Iraqi: 15 years of imprisonment with a two-thirds security period and a committal warrant. Suspected of having controlled the entire network of his prison cell in France, he was also given a permanent ban from French territory and a fine of 200,000 euros.
Dressed in a black quilted vest and sporting a dark beard, he calmly listened to the pronouncement of his sentence behind a glass box. Already convicted twice for aiding illegal residence, he was expelled from the hearing on the third day of the trial in October after threatening interpreters.
All defendants convicted
The 17 other defendants, including a woman, were sentenced to sentences ranging from one to twelve years' imprisonment and a fine of up to 150,000 euros. All were sentenced to permanent ban from the territory. Arrest warrants were issued against nine of these defendants convicted in absentia.
The court also ordered confiscation of property: several thousand euros in cash, a German sedan, the return of Dutch, British, Iraqi or Canadian identity papers.
Since 2018, the phenomenon of illegal crossings of the Channel on small boats has continued to grow, with an ever-increasing number of migrants by canoe. Shipwrecks and fatal stampedes have made 2024 the deadliest year since the start of this phenomenon, with at least 60 deaths to date in attempted crossings.
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