Migrants on fatal Channel crossing screamed 'we're going to die', court told

Ibrahima Bah sketched at a previous hearing at Canterbury Crown Court

People screamed "we are going to die" as a boat holding more than 40 migrants started sinking crossing the English Channel, a court heard.

At least 43 people made the journey on 14 December 2022 - not all had life jackets and four men died.

Ibrahima Bah, who is over 18, is accused of steering the boat in return for free passage on it.

He denies four counts of manslaughter and a charge of facilitating a breach of immigration law.

Survivor Nesar Durrani, who is from Afghanistan, said he heard a man at the engine of the boat joke "I will either take you there or kill you all".

The boat began taking on water on its journey to the UK in the early hours, at which point people were scared and screaming, the court heard.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Duncan Atkinson KC told the jury: "As the pilot of a vessel carrying paying passengers, he owed each of them a duty of care, to ensure their safety and protect them from the overwhelming risk to their lives posed by an unchartered voyage in an unseaworthy boat across the open sea."

One of the four who lost their lives was named as Hajratullah Ahmadi. The other three were described as "unknown".

The majority of passengers paid thousands of euros to smugglers for a spot on the vessel, the court heard.

Jurors were told the low-quality inflatable should have no more than 20 people on board.

A video showing migrants being rescued from the sinking boat was shown to the court.

Mr Atkinson continued: "It would have been abundantly clear that there was an obvious and serious risk of death to those on board.

"Such a failure on his part for his passengers' safety, leading to the deaths of at least four of them, amounts to manslaughter by reason of his gross negligence."

In a later interview, Mr Durrani said: "This was a matter of life and death and we were in a very difficult state.

"We were angry at the driver that steered, the person steering the boat because it was very fast speed."

A number of migrants inside the boat described water reaching their knees within 30 minutes of leaving the French coastline.

Mr Atkinson said: "Despite these increasing and obvious problems, the defendant continued to head into UK waters."

Under duress

The jury heard that a crew on a British fishing boat came across the sinking boat and tried to rescue the passengers, with help from the RNLI, air ambulance and UK Border Force.

A total of 39 survivors were brought to shore in Dover. But the exact number of migrants who drowned is unknown, as it appears at least one person's body believed to have not been recovered, Mr Atkinson added.

The jury has been told that Mr Bah's defence is likely to be that he was acting under duress, claiming he was forced to undertake the role of pilot by the smugglers and that he had been both threatened and assaulted to make him do it.

The trial continues.

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