France Opens Trial Over Deadliest Channel Migrant Disaster

A French court has opened a high-stakes trial involving fourteen defendants accused of involuntary manslaughter over a 2021 Channel shipwreck that killed thirty-one asylum seekers. The tragic incident stands as the deadliest recorded migrant crossing attempt toward the United Kingdom, prompting intense legal scrutiny regarding human smuggling rings operating actively along the northern French coastline and their direct operational involvement.