Manslaughter trial opens over death of seven migrants crossing Channel in 2023

The trial of nine men suspected of running a smuggling network involved in a deadly 2023 shipwreck was set to start on Tuesday at the Paris criminal court.

Two Iraqis, six Afghans and a Sudanese man have been charged with manslaughter over suspicions they were piloting the boat carrying 65 people to the UK.

Seven died when the boat called the Zodiac sank in one of the deadliest incidents since such crossings surged in 2018. The trial is set to run until November 18.

Several of the accused, aged between 23 and 45, are also charged with endangering the lives of others, aiding and abetting illegal entry or residence in France, and criminal association.

A tenth man of Sudanese citizenship, who was a minor at the time of the incident, has been referred to a juvenile court.

The investigation has uncovered "an organised and structured system on French and German territory offering irregular migrants the opportunity to try to reach England", wrote the two investigating judges in their referral order, AFP reported.

Last month, The National revealed the number of migrants crammed on to boats making the dangerous English Channel crossing had risen to record levels, with an average of 80 per vessel on some days.

The incident occurred in the early hours of August 12, 2023, when an overloaded small boat – a seven-metre, non-rigid vessel reinforced with a wooden plank – was launched around 2am from a beach in northern France, near Calais.

An engine failure occurred at sea around 4am, followed by the rupture of an inflatable wall and the collapse of the boat. Passengers, who were all from Afghanistan, were ejected, as well as the two presumed Sudanese pilots. No one was wearing a life jacket.

Six bodies were recovered. Another was later found on a beach in the Netherlands. Survivors were taken into the care of French and British maritime rescue services.

Investigators discovered a network "led by the Iraqi-Kurdish community" with two branches: the first, with Germany as its rear base, dealt with the logistical aspect, while an "Afghan channel" was in charge of recruiting "candidates for crossing", according to the referral order.

These organisations "rely on an extremely flexible model, operating on the basis of social, family and clan networks", that exercise violence "with weapons and threats" to operate a "trafficking activity that proves particularly lucrative", the court document said.

Survivors said the crossing to England cost €1,300 to €1,500 ($1,495-$1,720) each.

The accused pilots – who deny having played this role – had arrived a few weeks before the attempted crossing on the Italian island of Lampedusa before reaching Calais.

"Their role within the organisation of the illegal immigration network must be distinguished from the central role of the smugglers," the judges said.

The lawyer of one of the supposed pilots, Raphael Kempf, told France Inter radio that his client, Ibrahim Aboubakar, 31, was also a victim of human trafficking. His family live in a refugee camp in Chad.

"He's accused of having been at the helm of the Zodiac, which he denies, but frankly that's beside the point," Mr Kempf said. "When a boat sets sail for England, everyone on board contributes in their own way to the success of the collective effort to reach England. We know that smugglers don't board the boats."

No one has yet faced trial over the deadliest known incident on this migration route, which occurred in November 2021 with 27 deaths.