Ibrahima Bah: Dinghy pilot guilty over Channel migrant deaths

A man who piloted a boat in the English Channel has been found guilty of the manslaughter of four migrants who drowned when it ran into difficulty.

Ibrahima Bah, a Senegalese migrant, had offered to steer the dinghy in December 2022 in exchange for a free crossing.

He had claimed that he was forced by violent smugglers to make the journey with at least 43 other migrants.

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court also found Bah guilty of facilitating a breach of immigration law.

The case is the first time a migrant who navigated an inflatable has been found responsible for harm caused to other occupants, the BBC’s home and legal correspondent, Dominic Casciani, said.

Bah previously told the court he had changed his mind about piloting the boat to the UK when he arrived at the beach on the French coast and saw it was too small for the number of passengers.

The home-built, low-quality inflatable should not have held more than 20 people.

But he claimed he was assaulted by smugglers and threatened with death if he did not go ahead with the crossing.