Six men found guilty of manslaughter in Paris over deadliest small boat Channel crossing

A Paris court found six men guilty of manslaughter in connection with what prosecutors and the court described as the deadliest small-boat crossing of the English Channel. The trial examined the deaths of at least 30 people after an inflatable boat sank during the crossing in November 2021. Two accused were tried in absentia. The victims were mainly Iraqi Kurds, but also included Afghans, Ethiopians, an Egyptian, a Somali national, an Iranian Kurd and a Vietnamese national, with the youngest known victim a seven-year-old girl. The court heard that the non-certified dinghy was unfit for open-sea navigation, carried too few life jackets, and experts said occupants had “no chance” handling an emergency. Twenty-seven bodies were recovered and at least four were never found, while only two survived. The case involved alleged organisers, transporters and logistics coordinators tied to smuggling groups.