They were Kurds, Somalis, Ethiopians, Afghans and Egyptians. On November 24, 2021, 27 migrants, including seven women, a 16-year-old teenager and a 7-year-old child, died in the Channel. In this drama, the Paris Court of Appeal recently ruled that the facts attributed to the alleged smugglers were “inseparable” from those which were accused of the French soldiers, accused of not having provided assistance. The boat sank in the early morning, taking the lives of 27 passengers, mostly Iraqi Kurds, aged between 7 and 46.
Since then, eleven suspected smugglers have been indicted, and an arrest warrant has been issued by the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) in Paris to find one of the heads of the network, who is probably in Iraq, according to a judicial source.
There needs to be a “military” component and a “smuggler”, according to the defense
Seven French soldiers were also indicted, between May and June 2023, for failure to assist a person in danger. Five were personnel from the regional operational surveillance and rescue center (CROSS) Gris-Nez, two were on board the patrol boat Le Flamant.
Their defense recently tried to split the investigations between a “military” and a “smuggler” component, requesting the cancellation of numerous investigative acts. In essence, she believes that only a military affairs judge can investigate – as is usually the case in cases involving serving military personnel, except in cases of “connectedness”. In their eyes, the “actions” of the alleged smugglers and the soldiers “were not committed at the same time, or following consultation” and therefore cannot be considered “related”.
A network of smugglers
However, the Paris Court of Appeal recently rejected their requests. The offenses accused of the soldiers and the suspected smugglers, even if they are “of a different nature”, are “linked by a causal link”, found the investigating chamber. “The omission to provide assistance”, accused of the soldiers, “would not have taken place without the initial offense of aiding the entry and illegal stay of an organized gang”, attributed to the smugglers. The two offenses therefore “resulted in a common result”.
First, the smugglers: the network seems to be organized into two branches, Afghan and Iraqi, and the cost of the crossing amounts to 3,200 euros per person. An assessment carried out on the boat established that the boat was “totally unsuitable for crossing the Channel”. “Overloaded”, without “sufficient life jackets” or “any means of signaling and location”, and “without even a seasoned captain”… “The occupants had no chance of being able to face any event at sea”, underlines the court of appeal.
Secondly, the court notes “the absence of effective assistance provided by the CROSS soldiers” while the passengers had “reported themselves in danger”. It is “all of these concrete circumstances”, “linked together in time and space”, which fueled “the same dangerous situation”. The same investigating judge must therefore be able to investigate to find “all the behaviors that could have led to the shipwreck”, ruled the Court of Appeal. The Court of Cassation, the highest court in the judicial system, will also have to rule: at least five soldiers have filed an appeal.
