Chan Atak, 19, from South Sudan, has been jailed for endangering others during the English Channel crossing back in July. The craft made the journey carrying men, women and 31 children
A teen 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. The dinghy had two outboard engines but one was not functioning, while tubing on the boat had started to deflate, the court heard.
Aerial footage shows one person “constantly pumping” to try to re-inflate the rigid-hulled inflatable boat.
Atak was also picked up on aerial footage operating the boat for 90 minutes wearing a black jacket with an “Italia” logo.
But then Atak crouched down among other passengers and took off his jacket “to avoid detection as the helmsman”, prosecutor James Harrison said.
Atak pleaded guilty to the single offence in August at the same court.
The teenager, aided by an Arabic interpreter, wore a T-shirt and a large white rosary around his neck at the hearing on Friday.
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