A teenage asylum seeker who piloted an overcrowded, deflating 14-metre-long dinghy across the English Channel with 165 people on board has been jailed.
This was a record high number of passengers on a boat for a Channel crossing when the craft made the journey carrying men, women and 31 children, the youngest aged 14, on July 23.
Chan Atak, 19, from South Sudan, was jailed for two years and three months’ at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday for endangering others during a Channel crossing, which in this case lasted nearly 24 hours.
The dinghy had two outboard engines but one was not functioning, while tubing on the boat had started to deflate, the court heard.
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