Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“A French court has found 18 people guilty in a major people-smuggling trial that has shed light on the often deadly business of transporting migrants and refugees on small boats across the English Channel from France to the United Kingdom. The defendants were swept up in a pan-European police operation in 2022 that led to dozens of arrests. The longest sentence of 15 years in prison was handed down on Tuesday to Iraqi national Mirkhan Rasoul, 26, who was accused of being the leader of the network and coordinating its actions from his French prison cell after previous convictions.” (11/05/24)