A Senegalese man who piloted an “unseaworthy” boat across the Channel was sentenced to nine and a half years in jail Friday for the manslaughter of four migrants who drowned during the crossing.
Ibrahima Bah took the helm of the poor quality inflatable carrying 43 people, which should have held no more than 20 passengers, in December 2022.
But within 30 minutes of leaving the northern French coast, the boat got into trouble, with water lapping around the knees of the dozens crammed on board, according to evidence heard at Bah’s UK trial.
Bah, who is over 18 but whose exact age is in dispute, had denied the charges but was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter at Canterbury Crown Court in southeast England earlier this week.
The jury also found him guilty of one charge of facilitating illegal entry to the UK.
Handing down the sentence Friday, the judge described the boat as “wholly inadequate, and not remotely seaworthy”.
“It was a death trap… what happened is an utter tragedy for those who died and for their families,” he added.
A rescue operation plucked 39 people from the water and took them to safety. But the four others were pronounced dead.
The court heard that Bah, who had no training, did not pay for his own journey because he had agreed to pilot the boat.
He claimed he changed his mind on seeing it but that the people smugglers beat him and threatened to kill him if he did not go ahead.
Three of the four men who died have never been identified. The fourth was named as Hajratullah Ahmadi.
A coroner’s inquest was told they may have been from Afghanistan and Senegal.
Bah told police at the time of his arrest he had travelled from Senegal to Mali and then eventually Libya, before going by boat to Italy using smugglers.
Nearly 30,000 migrants crossed the Channel from mainland Europe to Britain in small boats in 2023, according to UK government figures.
The numbers are a political headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who last year pledged to “stop the boats”.