Fourteen suspected people smugglers have gone on trial in Paris over the deadliest small boats disaster in the English Channel, in which at least 30 migrants drowned in November 2021 after their overloaded dinghy deflated mid-crossing. The mainly Afghan defendants, most of whom deny the charges, face accusations of manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group; two alleged ringleaders remain at large and are being tried in absentia. The case matters because it is the first major trial to address both the smuggling networks profiting from Channel crossings and the wider failures that allowed the tragedy to unfold.

The boat left France on the evening of 23 November 2021 and began sinking mid-Channel, with occupants entering the freezing water in a bid to lighten the load; only two men survived, 27 bodies were recovered and four more people were confirmed missing, among them a seven-year-old child. Prosecutors say the defendants supplied a vessel unfit for sea travel, transported migrants and handled payments, though many claim they were themselves migrants acting under others' orders. The disaster also triggered separate inquiries into rescue failures, with seven French military personnel under investigation over a possible failure to assist, and a UK probe finding Dover's coastguard was understaffed and wrongly downplayed distress calls from the sinking boat.