The ringleader of a “prolific” people smuggling gang thought to be behind 10,000 Channel crossings has been jailed for 15 years, with a string of other members also convicted.
A court in Lille, northern France, found 18 defendants guilty on Tuesday after a trial.
The group was prosecuted in the wake of a 2022 police operation across Europe which led to dozens of arrests in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands, with more than 100 boats, 1,000 life jackets, engines and cash being seized.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed to treat people smugglers like terrorists in a speech in Glasgow on Monday (Russell Cheyne/PA)
The Iraqi kingpin of the gang, Mirkhan Rasoul, was also fined 200,000 euros (£167,709) in addition to being handed the longest jail sentence of all the defendants.
He is said to have run the organisation by phone from prison in France.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) worked with French authorities on the case, arresting another defendant – 40-year-old Kaiwan Poore – while he was trying to board a flight to Turkey at Manchester Airport in July 2022 so he could be extradited for the trial.
NCA deputy director Craig Turner said: “This network was among the most prolific we have come across in terms of the number of crossings they were able to organise.
“Their sole motive was profit, and they didn’t care about the fate of migrants they were putting to sea in wholly inappropriate and dangerous boats.”
The convictions come after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Government will “treat people smugglers like terrorists” as he announced a further £75 million for his border security command during a speech at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow.
The trial shone a light on the secretive business operations which have proven deadly for many men, women and children who attempt the dangerous crossing through the busiest shipping lane in the world crammed onto overcrowded and flimsy dinghies.
The gang stood to gain around £83,000 (about 100,000 euros) in profit from each crossing.
Fourteen of the 18 defendants were from Iraq, with the others from Iran, Poland, France and the Netherlands.
The trial saw them charged with facilitating Channel crossings between France and the UK, with the boats and other equipment being transferred from Germany and the Netherlands to beaches in northern France.
The sentences ranged from a one-year suspended sentence, with Poore handed five years behind bars.
Most of the gang were not in court for the sentencing, with some having attended the trial on camera from prisons in northern France while others were not being held in custody.
The case concluded as Channel crossings continued, with pictures showing a steady stream of people wearing life jackets being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent, throughout the day.
Both the French and UK coastguards said they were monitoring activity in the Channel amid good weather conditions.
More than 600 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey so far in November, with crossings recorded by the Home Office over three days.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)
The latest figures show 178 people arrived in three boats on Monday.
More than 5,400 people arrived after crossing the Channel in October, making it the busiest month of the year so far.
The provisional total for the year so far is 31,272, up 17% on this time last year (26,699) but down 22% on 2022 (39,929) – a record high year for crossings.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has not committed to a target or timeframe for curbing Channel crossings but pledged the Government would “try and make progress as rapidly as possible”.
But the journey is becoming even more perilous.
The number of people who have died while trying to cross the Channel this year now stands at 50, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard, with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) gathering details on 11 more migrant deaths believed to be linked to crossing attempts so far in 2024.
The NCA said it was putting more resources into tackling the criminal gangs behind Channel crossings “than ever before” and this was a “key priority” for the law enforcement agency. It said it is currently running around 70 live investigations into networks or individual suspects in the “top tier of organised immigration crime”.
Mr Turner added: “International co-operation is crucial in the fight against organised immigration crime, and working with the French and others we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the gangs involved.”