A French court on Monday, June 30th, sentenced seven Afghans and two Iraqi Kurds to seven to eight years in jail over the deadly capsizing of a boat carrying migrants from France to England in 2022.
The small boat had departed France early on December 14, 2022, carrying people from Afghanistan, Albania, India, and Senegal.
Four people died and four went missing after the boat capsized a few kilometres from the English coast with only one of the bodies identified—an Afghan man.
Rescuers saved 39 people from the shipwreck.
A court in the French city of Lille sentenced three men to eight years behind bars. They included an Afghan being tried in absentia and thought to be the mastermind of the smuggling operation.
It handed the rest seven-year sentences over the disaster, including two Afghan brothers accused of financing the criminal activity.
A tenth man who is being held in Belgium is to be tried at a later date.
A British court has already sentenced a Senegalese minor who drove the boat to nine years in jail, French prosecutors said.
The 2022 accident was one of the deadliest in the Channel in recent years. The court decision on Monday comes as the number of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel continues to soar and break records.
