By Lara Keay For Mailonline and Afp
Published: 20:53 BST, 26 May 2019 | Updated: 21:00 BST, 26 May 2019
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Emmanuel Desreux, 45, sold 39 motorised inflatable boats to migrants in 2018 and 2019
A Frenchman has been jailed for selling dozens of boats to migrants desperate to reach Britain by sailing across the English Channel.
Emmanuel Desreux, 45, sold 39 motorised inflatables to people trying to make the journey from France to the UK illegally.
He was sentenced to a year and a half behind bars, with another 18 months suspended for abetting illegal migration between October 2018 and March 2019.
More than 30 migrants have been returned to Europe so far this year after they were caught trying to enter the country by boat.
There has been a huge spike in Iraqi, Iranian and Afghan nationals travelling to the UK in recent months, prompting border officials on either side of the Channel to step up patrols.
Desreux's taxi driver accomplice who organised the transport of the boats and some of the migrants to beaches, Jean-Claude Demeyer, 54, was sentenced by the same court in Boulogne-sur-mer to one year in prison, with another year suspended.
Police launched their investigation into the crossings when they arrested four Iranians and two taxi drivers in January on a beach near Calais in January.
Information from those arrested led them to Desreux and his firm, Fluvialys, which was located in the town of Deulemont on the border with Belgium.
The period his company sold the boats corresponds with the noticeable increase in arrivals of
