An asylum seeker will be detained for nine years and six months for the manslaughter of four fellow migrants who drowned attempting to cross the Channel to the UK.
Ibrahima Bah, who is over 18, piloted the “unseaworthy” boat which got into trouble after setting off from France on 14 December 2022.
During a trial, jurors were told the home-built, low-quality inflatable should have had no more than 20 people on board but carried at least 43 people that night.
Bah told Canterbury Crown Court that smugglers threatened to kill him if he did not drive the vessel.
But prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said the Senegalese national was not telling the truth.
He said that while the majority of travellers paid thousands of euros to smugglers for a spot in the overcrowded vessel, it appeared Bah did not pay for his journey because he piloted the dingy, therefore owing his fellow passengers a “duty of care”.
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From December 2022: There were ‘bodies everywhere around the boat’
Bah was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter by jurors by a majority verdict of 10 to two in what is believed to be the first conviction of its kind on Monday.
He was also found unanimously guilty of facilitating illegal entry to the UK.
Campaigners are expected to protest the conviction at the Home Office on Friday evening, arguing it represents a “violent escalation in the persecution of migrants” to carry out the government’s pledge to “stop the boats”.
The prosecution said Bah was not trained or licensed to lead the voyage and there was insufficient safety equipment such as life jackets and no flares or radio on board.
When the boat got into trouble, a number of migrants inside the boat described water reaching their knees within 30 minutes of leaving the French coast, the court heard.
A total of 39 survivors were brought to shore, while the exact number of migrants who drowned is unknown as the prosecution said at least one migrant’s body may not have been recovered.
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The boat in which four passengers drowned in the English Channel. Pic: PA
Three of the people who died were known only as unknown male persons while the other man was named as Hajratullah Ahmadi.
One asylum seeker, Amrullah Ahmadzai, described to jurors how everyone on the boat was screaming and trying to call for help on their mobile phones during the journey.
The crew of a UK fishing boat tried to rescue the passengers, with help from the RNLI, air ambulance and UK Border Force.
The boat in which four passengers drowned in the English Channel. Pic: PA
Sentencing Bah on Friday, Mr Justice Johnson KC, said: “The boat was wholly inadequate, and not remotely seaworthy for a Channel crossing.
“It was a death trap, just as every boat of its type which sets off across the Channel in similar circumstances is a death trap – the fact that in many cases fatalities do not occur is not remotely reassuring.
“What happened is an utter tragedy for those who died and for their families.”
Following the verdict on Monday, Captain Support UK, a solidarity platform for those accused of driving boats to Europe, said Bah’s conviction was a “violent escalation in the persecution of migrants to ‘Stop the Boats'”.
However, illegal immigration minister Michael Tomlinson said on X: “Ibrahima Bah put dozens of lives in extreme danger by taking charge of a perilous and illegal small boat crossing. It is right that he has been brought to justice today.
“Once you get into a small boat, criminal gangs don’t care whether you live or die.”
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