Six men guilty of manslaughter after 'deadliest small boat Channel crossing' killed over 30 migrants
Sentences for the six men ranged from six to a decade in prison
Six men have been found guilty of manslaughter in connection to the deaths of over 30 migrants who drowned in the deadliest small boat Channel crossing.
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The victims were travelling in an inflatable boat which sank while attempting to make the crossing in November 2021
A Paris court on Wednesday found six men guilty of manslaughter, and seven other men were found guilty of lesser smuggling charges with varying degrees of seriousness, including facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy.
The overloaded dinghy deflated during the journey across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Read more: Britain has everything we need to stop small boats - but passing laws is easier than real solutions
Emergency services were alerted after a French fishing vessel spotted bodies in the water off the coast near Calais, and 27 bodies were later recovered.
Four others were not found and only two men survived.
Sentences for the six men found guilty of manslaughter ranged from six to ten years in prison while jail terms ranged from six months suspended to four years in prison.
One man was cleared of any wrongdoing.
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The victims were mainly Iraqi Kurds, but also included Afghans, Ethiopians, an Egyptian, a Somali national, an Iranian Kurd and a Vietnamese national.
Speaking to the court, Zana Mamand Muhammad, whose brother Twana, 18 at the time and was never recovered, said: "I live with the uncertainty of discovering some information about his disappearance, a body, a grave.
"I am living with this constant pain."
A British public inquiry later ruled that the deaths could have been prevented, and underfunding meant that UK marine rescue resources were inadequate.