UK: South Sudanese teen who piloted ‘mega dinghy’ across English Channel with 165 migrants onboard jailed

Chan Mathok Atak was sentenced on Friday (Photo Credit: Reuters)

A teenager who piloted a boat with a then-record 165 migrants across the English Channel has been jailed for two years and three months.

Chan Atak, 19, from South Sudan, was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday.

The overcrowded craft, which has been referred to as a “mega dinghy”, made the journey on 23 July.

At the time, the dinghy set a record for the largest number of migrants to reach the UK on a single boat. That record has since been broken, with 230 migrants recorded on board a boat in August.

Thirty-one children were among the people on board Atak’s vessel – the youngest aged just 14.

165 migrants were on board the dinghy, including 31 children (Reuters)

Atak was jailed for endangering others during a Channel crossing.

The boat itself was estimated to measure approximately 13 metres (42ft) in length, comparable to a standard bus.

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 showed 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.

However, he then 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.

Judge Sarah Counsell said that Atak played an “important role” in controlling and navigating the vessel, and it was not “fleeting or incidental involvement”.

“Crossings of this nature are inherently dangerous,” she said.

“Small inflatable vessels of the type commonly used for these crossings are not designed for offshore sea voyages.

“Those who choose to steer such vessels assume responsibility for the safety of those on board.”

The judge also noted that as well as engine issues, the vessel did not have navigation, emergency signalling equipment or firefighting equipment, while fuel containers and batteries were “stored together creating a risk of fire”.

However, she added that there was no evidence that Atak organised the crossing or that he stood to make money from it.

The boat was comparable in length to a school bus and was seen deflating while at sea (Reuters)

The court heard that Atak had told police officers he paid €200 to a gang for the crossing.

Barrister Audrey Mogan, for the defence, urged the court to take into account Atak’s young age and said he had “escaped the horrors of South Sudan”.

He had seen militia set fire to a neighbourhood, people shot and their throats slashed in his home country, she said.

He escaped from there to Libya, where the situation for young asylum seekers are “dire”, and he was beaten and particularly focused on because of his Christianity, Ms Mogan said.

“It’s from there he escaped to Italy and then to France.”

She told the judge: “He wants me to tell this to your honour, he came here to seek sanctuary and safety, that is of course what asylum seekers are doing, to build a new life and to leave the dire circumstances where they come from, seek protection.”

The court heard the sentence for Atak meant as a foreign national he was liable in principle to automatic deportation back to his country.

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/migrants-mega-dinghy-sentence-chan-atak-b3052511.html