By Juliette Jabkhiro and Layli Foroudi
PARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Fourteen men face trial in Paris on Tuesday on smuggling charges related to the drowning of more than 30 people in the Channel five years ago, the worst disaster on record involving migrants in the narrow seaway separating France and Britain.
The migrants perished after their overloaded dinghy deflated as they made the perilous crossing across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Investigators allege that Afghan and Iraqi-Kurdish
smuggling networks organised the migrants' passage to Britain from camps near Grande-Synthe and Calais in northern France. The defendants face charges including involuntary manslaughter, facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy.
A French fishing vessel alerted emergency services after spotting bodies floating in the waters off the French coast near Calais in November 2021, according to the court referral order. Twenty-seven victims were recovered, while at least four others were never found. Only two men survived.
The victims were mainly Iraqi Kurds, but also included Afghans, Ethiopians, an Egyptian, a Somali national, an Iranian Kurd and a Vietnamese national. The youngest known victim was a 7-year-old girl.
The migrants had been packed on to a flimsy dinghy that was non-certified and unfit for open-sea navigation, and was not equipped with enough life jackets, the court document showed. Experts concluded its occupants had "no chance" of effectively dealing with an emergency at sea.
Among the defendants facing involuntary manslaughter charges are alleged organisers, transporters and logistics coordinators connected to the smuggling groups. Prosecutors argue their actions helped create the conditions that led to the disaster, even if some were not physically present when the boat launched.
Two of the defendants have eluded French authorities and will be tried in absentia.
Investigators cited evidence including mobile-phone data, intercepted communications, surveillance operations and testimony from survivors and relatives of victims.
A British inquiry into the disaster found the deaths were avoidable. It concluded that a French naval vessel failed to respond to a call for help from the British coastguard, which in turn made "a number of flawed decisions", including ending a search for survivors too early.
Families of some of the victims would travel from Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan to attend part of the trial, their lawyers said.
"Justice must hold to account everyone who played a role in this tragedy," the statement read.
The trial was due to last until September 30.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; editing by Richard Lough and Alex Richardson)
