A French court in Lille found 18 defendants guilty on Tuesday in a migrant-smuggling trial linked to dangerous English Channel crossings.

The group was charged after a 2022 police operation across Europe led to several arrests and the seizure of boats, life jackets and cash.

One of the ringleaders, from Iraq, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 200,000 euros (£167,709).

Most of the defendants were not in court for the sentencing. Some attended the trial remotely from various prisons in northern France, while others are not in custody.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The trial has shed light on the clandestine business in what has been a particularly deadly year for the many of men, women and children who attempt the crossing on small and often dangerously overloaded boats.

The 18 defendants were swept up in a pan-European operation that led to dozens of arrests in Germany, France, Britain and the Netherlands in July 2022.

Those arrested included the suspected ringleader of a network that smuggled as many as 10,000 people across the bustling shipping lanes of the English Channel.

The police raids also led to the seizures of 135 boats in Germany and the Netherlands, more than 1,000 life jackets, outboard engines, packs of paddles and cash.

Migrants have long used the wide beaches of northern France as launching points for attempted crossings to the UK. It is favoured by many as a destination for reasons of language or family ties.

Graphic showing migrants detected crossing the English Channel
(PA Graphics)

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants are also pushing many migrants north.

The British and French governments have worked for years to stop the risky crossings but have failed to deter people fleeing conflict or crushing poverty. Smugglers charge thousands of euros per person for passage.

More than 31,000 migrants have made the perilous Channel crossing so far this year, more than in all of 2023, though fewer than in 2022. At least 56 people have died in the attempts this year, according to French officials, making 2024 the deadliest since the crossings began surging in 2018.

On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told an Interpol conference that “people-smuggling should be viewed as a global security threat similar to terrorism”.

He said intelligence and law-enforcement agencies should try to “stop smuggling gangs before they act” in the same way they do in counterterrorism operations.

Fourteen of the 18 defendants in Lille are from Iraq, with the others from Iran, Poland, France and the Netherlands.