(AFP) A French court has sentenced nine Afghans aged 21 to 39 to jail for illegally smuggling migrants across the Channel to Britain on dinghies in 2021.
London and Paris are clamping down on illicit boat crossings into the United Kingdom on the perilous route, which has been used by growing numbers of people since 2018.
The trial centred on four operations to smuggle 53 mainly Vietnamese and Afghan migrants across the Channel between January and March 2021.
All were picked up in either British or French waters.
The Paris court on Wednesday jailed a 30-year-old for six years and fined him 30,000 euros ($32,000) for orchestrating the crossings, charges he denied throughout the trial.
