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LILLE, France — A French court on Tuesday found 18 people guilty in a major migrant smuggling trial, shedding light on the lucrative but often deadly clandestine business of transporting people on flimsy boats across the dangerous seas from France to Britain
The defendants were swept up in a pan-European police operation in 2022 that led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of boats, life jackets, outboard motors, paddles and cash.
The court in Lille, northern France, sentenced one of the leaders, Mirkhan Rasoul, a 26-year-old from Iraq, to 15 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros ($218,000). Rasoul attended the trial in a secure plexiglass box and under the supervision of armed police.
Other sentences ranged from two to ten years in prison.
“These sentences are clearly very severe,” said Kamel Abbas, a lawyer who represented one of the defendants already jailed in France. “That testifies to the scale of the case and the intention to punish the smugglers severely.”
Most defendants were not present in court for the verdicts and sentences. Some attended the trial remotely from various prisons in northern France, while others were not in custody. Fourteen of the eighteen defendants came from Iraq, the others from Iran, Poland, France and the Netherlands.
All defendants, except those from France, were banned from remaining on French territory after serving their sentences.
Craig Turner, deputy director of the British National Crime Agency (NCA), involved in the arrest of one of the suspects, said the network was one of the most prolific organizers of border crossings.
“Their only motive was profit, and they had no concern for the fate of the migrants they sent out to sea in completely inappropriate and dangerous boats,” Turner said.
“We are putting more resources into disrupting and dismantling the criminal gangs behind them than ever before,” Turner said.
According to a statement from the NCA published on Tuesday, the criminal network earned approximately €100,000 ($109,035) from each crossing.
The trial comes in what has been a particularly deadly year for attempts to cross the English Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
So far this year, more than 31,000 migrants have made the dangerous crossing across the Channel. more than in all of 2023although less than in 2022. At least 56 people have done so died in the attempts French officials say 2024 will be the deadliest this year since crossings began rising in 2018.
The route remains a major smuggling route for people fleeing conflict or poverty, despite French and British attempts to stop it. Migrants prefer Britain because of its language, family ties or perceived easier access to asylum and work.
The increasingly strict European asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants also drive many migrants north.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for international cooperation against smuggling gangs, likening the issue to a global security threat on par with terrorism.
Starmer told a conference of the international police organization Interpol that “human trafficking should be seen as a global security threat, on a par with terrorism.” He said intelligence and law enforcement agencies should try to “stop the smuggling gangs before they take action,” in the same way they do in counter-terrorism operations.
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AP journalists John Leicester in Paris and Jill Lawless in London contributed.
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