Relatives of some of the eight stowaways found dead in a container in Wexford more than a year ago were disappointed by the sentences passed down by a Belgian court yesterday.
While they said they were relieved that the traffickers imprisoned were no longer in a position to put the lives of other people at risk, two relatives living in Ireland said the sentences should have been lengthier.
Mr Karadede Guler, from Turkey, whose wife and two young sons died in the tragedy, said he was "happy at least that they won't be able to do anything to other people but the sentences aren't enough for all the lives lost" .
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Guler said it was not satisfactory that a convicted father and son, given six and eight-year sentences, would probably be released within half this time. The 32-year-old widower had wanted to travel to Belgium to witness the trial, but could not afford it. Instead, he followed it through the media and received updates from gardaí.
Mr Guler is among five people who survived the journey from Belgium to Ireland inside a poorly ventilated 40ft metal container transporting office furniture to a company in Wexford. When the 13 stowaways who were smuggled on board the container in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge in the early hours of December 4th, 2001, they thought they were embarking on a three- hour sailing to Dover.
Most had relatives in the United Kingdom, where they thought they would have brighter futures. However, due to what seemed to be a mistake on the part of the traffickers, the stowaways spent about four days (101 hours) locked in the container, which had been illegally opened and then resealed once they were inside.
The 54-hour sailing was as frightening as it was uncomfortable, as the vessel pitched and rolled in a force 10 gale. The ship's hold was closed, shutting out the chinks of light from four ventilation shafts in the container, each measuring six inches by two.
When the container was eventually opened at Drinagh business park in Co Wexford on December 8th, the remains of two men in their 20s; a 41-year-old man and his 10-year-old and 12-year-old children; and Mr Guler's 28-year-old wife Saniye, along with their two sons, Imam (10) and Berkan (4), were found inside.
The stowaways had been charged around €5,000 a head by a London-based trafficker who Belgian prosecutors estimated made €12 million annually out of human cargo and who was sentenced in his absence yesterday.
The brother of Ms Kadriye Kalendergil, from Turkey, whose husband and two children died in the container, said yesterday he too was unhappy with the sentences.
Speaking through an interpreter, Halil said: "It should have been a tougher sentence to send a stronger message to others." Halil came to Ireland last December for a commemoration ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy.
He has since made an asylum claim here and is living in Galway. His sister now lives in the UK. Halil claimed he was harassed and beaten by Turkish police after they learned of the deaths of the stowaways, telling him "you people make a bad example of us in Europe".
Mr Latif Serhildan, who works with immigrants in Cork, and who helped organise a commemoration ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy, said the war on Iraq would lead people to flee it and neighbouring countries, including Turkey.
European states, including Ireland, should be "more tolerating and open to people's needs, rather than just sealing off our borders and making people more desperate".
Mr Peter O'Mahony, from the Irish Refugee Council, welcomed the fact that some of the traffickers had been brought to justice.
He said he was worried that Government plans to introduce fines for carriers, including haulage companies who transport undocumented migrants to Ireland, would force more people to depend on traffickers.
"The irony is that while countries of the European Union are correctly trying to stamp out trafficking, they are creating a greater need for it because of the policies like carrier sanctions that make it more difficult for asylum-seekers to access safe countries," he said.