Ten people have now been sentenced for endangering others on small boats crossing the Channel after two migrants from Afghanistan and Sudan were jailed today.
Since January it has been illegal to do any act that puts others at risk of death or serious harm. That is often the case as small boats are overcrowded, too flimsy for a Channel crossing, not everyone wears a life jacket, and they are not equipped with flares, lights, or radios that can be used to signal for help.
Omar Heidari (left) and Manas Yuk
The pilot commits the offence if they have control of the boat for any time during the crossing.
The English Channel is one of the busiest stretches of water in the world and is criss-crossed by hundreds of large vessels every day. Inflatable small boats are designed for use close to the shore.
Those sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court were:
• Omar Heidari, 34, an Afghan national arrived on 23 June with 95 others. Pleaded guilty to endangerment and jailed for 24 months.
• Manas Yuk, an 18-year-old Sudanese national, who arrived on 21 June with 82 others on board, including 13 children. He was jailed for 18 months and is this 10th person to be sentenced.
Kris Venkatasami from the Crown Prosecution Service, said:
“These men are the latest to be sentenced for endangering the lives of others while steering a small boat since it became a crime this year. All of them pleaded guilty and have been handed prison sentences.
“This shows the quality of the evidence gathered by UK Border Force and Immigration Enforcement officers which allows our prosecutors to present the strongest case possible in court.
“Those sentenced to more than a year in prison face being deported and if they make an asylum application their conviction will be taken into account.
“The new endangerment law is clearly working and there are more cases going through the courts, so the public can expect to see more convictions for those who recklessly endanger the lives of others.”
Minister of State in the Home Office, Anna Turley, said:
“Two more small boat pilots have been sentenced in a single day. That means ten pilots locked behind bars under the new endangerment offence in less than two months.
“If you risk the lives of others by bringing illegal migrants to British shores on dangerous small boats, you will face justice.
“These sentences, alongside a 74% surge in arrests for organised immigration crime, show that we are going further than ever before to crackdown the criminal smuggling gangs.”