A teenager has been charged with facilitating attempted illegal entry to the UK after four people died when a migrant boat capsized in the Channel on Wednesday.
Ibrahima Bah, 19, of no fixed address, has been remanded in custody and will appear before Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Kent Police said.
A major rescue operation off the Kent coast began at 2.16am on December 14 after reports of a boat in distress, with the Royal Navy, French navy, Coastguard, RNLI lifeboats, ambulance service and police involved.
A total of 39 people were safely brought to shore, while four others were pronounced dead.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths are being investigated by detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, assisted by the National Crime Agency.
Paramedics and Air Ambulance personnel at Dover Marina on December 14 as the search operation continued
A man was arrested in connection with the incident on Friday, and on Sunday Kent Police said the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a charge against Bah of knowingly facilitating the attempted arrival in the UK of people he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were asylum seekers.
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Police are continuing to work to establish the identity of those who died and locate their next of kin.
The captain of the fishing vessel described the scenes as ‘something out of a Second World War movie’ on December 14, saying they pulled more than 30 people from the water but at least one could not be saved.
A lifejacket floating in the sea close to where the Channel tragedy is believed to have happened
‘There were people in the water everywhere, screaming,’ the skipper, named Raymond, told Sky News at the time.
Those hauled aboard – who came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal and India – said they had paid £5,000 for their passage.
A teenager was among the four migrants who perished in the English Channel, authorities revealed.
Kent County Council leader Roger Gough said that a youngster was one of the fatalities, while 12 of the 39 who survived were children travelling on their own.
