up to fifteen years in prison for 18 members of a vast network of migrant smugglers

Sentences of up to fifteen years in prison were handed down on Tuesday, November 5 in Lille against 18 members of a vast network of smugglers in the Channel, mainly Iraqi-Kurds, described by the prosecution as “death merchants”. This network, suspected of having organized more than 10,000 clandestine crossings, according to the British authorities, was, according to the French investigation, one of the main organizers of migrant crossings into England by crossing the Channel between 2020 and 2022.

In this part, which follows several other trials, the court followed the prosecutor's requests by imposing the heaviest sentence, fifteen years of imprisonment with a two-thirds security period, against an Iraqi of 26 years old, Mirkhan Rasoul. Suspected of having controlled the entire network from 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.

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. The defendants have ten days to appeal.

100,000 euros per crossing

This trial was held between the end of September and the beginning of October, before the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Lille. At the start of her requisitions, the prosecutor described a “sprawling file”with international ramifications. “The defendants are not volunteers helping their neighbors but merchants of death”had accused the prosecutor, describing boats loaded with passengers “up to 15 times their theoretical capacity”.

More than 50 searches led to the seizure of 1,200 life jackets, nearly 150 inflatable boats and 50 boat engines, during operations carried out jointly by France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. United, coordinated by the Europol and Eurojust agencies.

“This network was one of the most prolific we have seen in terms of the number of crossings it was able to organize”Craig Turner, deputy director of the British National Crime Agency (NCA), said in a statement on Tuesday.

This network is suspected of having organized more than 10,000 clandestine crossings of the Channel to the United Kingdom, and each trip was to bring in around 100,000 euros, according to the NCA. The only motivation of these smugglers “was profit, and they did not care about the fate of the migrants they put at sea in totally inappropriate and dangerous boats”added Mr. Turner.

At least 60 deaths in 2024

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.

Hewa Rahimpur, another leader of the network, of Iranian nationality, was arrested in London by the NCA in 2022 then extradited to Belgium, where he was sentenced last year to eleven years in prison. In January, members of the same network had already been sentenced to sentences ranging from fifteen months to five years in prison and three others must be tried in Belgium next year.