PARIS: Fourteen people suspected of links to trafficking networks went on trial in France on Tuesday over the loss of at least 31 people including a seven-year-old child in the Channel in 2021, the deadliest accident involving asylum seekers trying to reach the English coast. The defendants are accused of playing a role in the sinking in which 27 people were confirmed to have died when their inflatable dinghy sank in the early hours of November 24, 2021. Four others are still unaccounted for.
The victims, aged between seven and 46, were mostly Iraqi Kurds but also included Afghans, Ethiopians, Egyptians and Vietnamese nationals.
Only two men, a Somali and an Iraqi, survived the tragedy. The trial carries particular significance because of the high death toll and the sheer number of civil parties involved, 114 in all, including victims' families.
"This is an important step for them, something that will not give them solace but something that will allow them some recovery as part of this long process of grief," said Thomas Ricard, one of the lawyers for many of the victims' families. Another lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, called the proceedings a "trial of greed, cynicism and inhumanity." — AFP
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