A Lille court has sentenced 18 members of a significant human smuggling network to prison terms ranging from one to fifteen years. This operation, involving Iraqi-Kurdish nationals, was responsible for orchestrating migrant crossings to England between 2020 and 2022. The toughest sentence, 15 years, was handed to Mirkhan Rasoul, who allegedly managed the network from prison. The convictions stemmed from an extensive investigation led by multiple European countries, revealing the network’s role in multiple fatal migrant crossings in the English Channel, which have seen a tragic rise in fatalities this year.