Fourteen go on trial over deadliest Channel small boats disaster

Fourteen suspected people smugglers have gone on trial in Paris for their role in the worst ever small boats disaster in the English Channel.

In November 2021, at least 30 men, women and children drowned when their motorised dinghy deflated and started taking on water halfway between France and the UK.

The 14 defendants – mainly Afghan nationals – are accused of manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group.

Most of them deny the charges. Two of the 14, who are alleged to be leaders of the operation, remain on the run and are being tried in absentia.

The boat left the French coast on the evening of 23 November 2021, but ran into difficulty in the middle of the Channel.

One by one the occupants entered the water to try to lessen the weight, but succumbed to the cold and drowned. Only two men survived.

According to the charge sheet, the defendants helped to launch "a small boat of poor quality, unfit to navigate at sea, overloaded and equipped with inadequate life-jackets".

Twenty-seven bodies were found after the boat sank, and another four were confirmed missing.

Many of the people who died were Iraqi Kurds, but others came from Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt and Afghanistan. The youngest named victim was seven years old.