(AFP) French prosecutors have charged nine men over their involvement in the November 2021 Channel drowning of migrants in which 27 people died, a judicial source said Friday.
This takes the total number of people charged for their alleged role in the disaster to 10, of whom five have been incarcerated on accusations including manslaughter, said the source who asked not to be named.
The death of the 27 in late November was the worst accident in the Channel since 2018, when the narrow strait became a key route for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia who have been increasingly using small boats to reach England from France.
Among the 27 — aged seven to 47 — were 16 Iraqi Kurds, four Afghans, three Ethiopians, one Somali, one Egyptian and one Vietnamese migrant.
