By admin 
A French court has sentenced 18 people – mainly Iraqi Kurds – to prison terms of up to 15 years for organizing a major migrant smuggling ring that transported people across the English Channel in small, flimsy boats.
Published on: 06/11/2024 – 14:06
3 minutes
The trial, held in Lille, exposed the dangers and high profits of illegal crossings from France to England.
The defendants were apprehended in a European police operation in 2022, leading to dozens of arrests and the seizure of boats, life jackets, outboard motors, paddles and cash.
The longest sentence of 15 years, together with a €200,000 fine, was imposed on 26-year-old Iraqi Kurd Mirkhan Rasoul, identified as one of the leaders.
Other sentences ranged from two to ten years in prison.
“The defendants are not volunteers who help their fellow human beings, but traders in death,” the prosecutor describes how boats were loaded “up to 15 times their theoretical capacity”.
“These sentences are obviously very strict,” said Kamel Abbas, lawyer for one of the defendants who is already jailed in France. “That testifies to the scale of the case and the intention to punish the smugglers severely.”
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The majority of the suspects were not present at the sentencing hearing. Some watched the proceedings remotely from prisons in northern France, while others did tried in absentiawith arrest warrants issued.
Fourteen of the defendants were Iraqi nationals, while the others were from Iran, Poland, France and the Netherlands.
All except the French suspect were prohibited from remaining in France after serving their sentences.
Profit was ‘only motive’
Craig Turner, deputy director of the British National Crime Squad (NCA), involved in the arrest of one of the defendants, 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 it disrupt and dismantle the criminal gangs behind it than ever before,” Turner added.
According to a statement from the NCA, the criminal network earned around €100,000 from each crossing.
Deadliest 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.
More than 31,000 migrants have made the dangerous crossing of the Channel so far this year – more than in all of 2023 – but less than in 2022.
At least 56 people have died in the attempts this year, according to French officials, making 2024 the deadliest year since crossings began rising in 2018.
Despite French and British efforts To stop this, the route remains an important smuggling corridor for people fleeing conflict or poverty.
Migrants prefer Britain because of its language, family ties or perceived easier access to asylum and work.
Taffekken ‘on the same page as terrorism’
The increasingly strict European asylum rules, growing xenophobia and increasing xenophobia 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 international police organization Interpol said that “human trafficking should be viewed as a global security threat, on a par with terrorism.”
He added that 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.